Weather Changes
by EstelleAgain
Summary: A baby left on the steps of an orphanage late at night, follow the story as the child grows with their magic and forms friendships and rivalries between people all over the world of Fairy Tail. Can the weather be predicted in this story? AU-I'm attempting to spice up weather magic a little but not so much that the oc is invincible.
1. Chapter 1

**AU: I decided to write this for my own enjoyment and for others if they wish to read it. I'm a new writer and love Fairy Tail so I made an oc and a story to go with it based around the world of Fairy Tail. This is the first chapter. FYI I don't own Fairy Tail, just my oc and her story.**

Weather changes

Its raining today, on a normal cloudy night in august, a young cloaked womanly figure jogging in a rushed but gentle pace, down a dimly lit cobble path holding a small blanketed crying figure.

"shh, you'll be safe in a moment. Just a bit more. Hang on a while longer. My dear child." the woman stated in a hushed tone.

The mysterious woman and child were suddenly overwhelmed by a thick fog although the woman didn't seem fazed and distant shouts of angry men could be heard "That damned witch! She'll bleedin' pay for lyin' to us like that!" an angry man bellowed not to far behind the woman and child.

"This close already? Oh no, what should we do?" the kind sounding woman sniffled. Across the street through a small alley, a light of a tall, worn down building with a big wooden sign saying 'Little light orphanage' on and the sound of children being beckoned for dinner. The woman made a small smile and looked down at the bundle in her arms. "I'm sorry little one. I hope you'll forgive me in the future but its all I can do for you in this lifetime, its unfortunate but…" she trailed off "I'm going to give you a life with or without me in it, my dear beautiful child." and with a light squeeze the woman sauntered over through the thick fog towards the orphanage. She knocked on the door heavily and left a cold now crying baby on the floor to wait for one of the matrons to notice. The woman watched as the matron took in her crying child who stood outside waiting for the person who left it before heading back inside after noticing a small water shaped patch stretched across the floor with the child's name written out which then slowly melted away as a tear escaped the mysterious womans eye.

"I'll see you sometime in the future, be good for me." the woman said in a hushed voice. The fog clearing up slightly so the men could spot the woman running off in the other direction from the orphanage. With the men speedily running after her, she attempted to make her escape out of the small town of Restibou.

 **Inside the orphanage after the arrival of the baby.**

"There, there. Don't cry, lets get you warmed up and dressed for sleep, ok?" the old looking matron soothed. "huh. Granny, what is that?" a young brunette girl around the age of 10 asked as she went look at the loud baby. "aww, its so cute! Can I hold it?! Please?" the girl begged. "Not right now Kacey, we need to warm poor _Noel_ up" the old woman stated. "Noel? But we usually decide the babies names as a group and vote and stuff!" Kacey huffed. "The name was already decided by the heavens, we must respect the wishes of nature around us and the circumstances before. Remember?" the granny stated whilst wrapping the child in new clothing, "and Noel is a nice name, I'm sure she'll grow to like it in the future". "awh...ok, but I get to look after her, like a sister! I always wanted a baby sister!" Kacey stated, "alright, alright, but be careful, she's very frail and-" the old lady started her lecture aimed towards the young girl who stood there pouting.

After getting the baby Noel settled for bedtime she instantly fell asleep. "ahh what a good child, no endless crying." a younger matron stated with a small tear in her eye. "sister Avery… your volunteering to work here, shouldn't you be more uplifting." Kacey said drily. "oh ha ha, its just nice to not hear loud crying all the time." Avery remarked with a slightly sarcastic tone and added "I can see Noel growing up to be a nice refined young lady… without your guidance of course.", "Hey! I can be refined!" Kacey replied aghast at the comment, "Really? Throughout your being here I haven't seen an ounce of refined in you." Avery said backing up her earlier comment, "ugh! I'll show you refined! Watch me be a dependable big sister and then you'll be coming to me for lessons on how to be refined _and_ a good sister!" Kacey huffed with a pointed finger as she pulled up a chair to rest next to the sleeping Noel while Avery simply looked on too mortified to argue any more, mumbling something about being a refined lady.

The next morning Kacey introduced the rest of the children to little Noel when she and Granny took Noel down for breakfast with the rest of the children who were housed in the orphanage, in total there was 9 children, it was only a small orphanage of 3 girls and 6 boys, including Noel and excluding matrons. There were four matrons, Granny the old lady and founder of the orphanage, Avery the 29 year old non-mage who volunteered but makes out she hates the job while secretly loving the kids, Hannah 45 years old and a former wind mage who just has a love for children and making them happy, Laurette a 67 year old and a kind general goods shop owner who volunteers now and again since her children have moved out. The children aged from 5 to 14 while others who have left the orphanage for jobs leave small payments of thanks to Granny even though she doesn't like to accept 'her childrens' money.

After breakfast, Granny and Kacey took Noel out for a walk while the other children play with each other back at the orphanage and in a nearby park after losing most interest in another new arrival. "Granny, can I please carry my sister now?" Kacey asked politely attempting to be elegant with some form of social tact. Granny sighed seeing this "Of course, but be careful, we don't want to drop the poor girl.". Kacey gasped in horror "I would not drop her! Granny is supposed to support me in my quest for a little sister. Its not my fault all the other kids hate me" Kacey pouted while taking hold of Noel. "You know for a fact that they don't hate you, your just… a little different. Since you can already manifest some magic at this young age they just don't know how to act around you" the granny soothed but was lost on Kacey. "Like a normal person because I'm normal! They will probably learn some kind of magic later too!" Kacey screeched. Granny quietened Kacey down to stop her from frightening Noel. "I'm not scary. Noel will know that." she sniffled. "Of course she will dear. She's your sister, right?" granny said with a smile towards them both. With a brightened attitude and a new resolve to help raise Noel in the orphanage she stated with a huge grin "Yeah!"

 **AU- So this is just a small kicker off to the story because I needed to get the characters going, I intend to make this a first person pov of Noel. Any ways this was the first chapter of the story and I'm going to try and improve my knowledge further on writing and about fairy tail. Stay tuned.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AU- This is the second chapter of Weather Changes. Last chapter I introduced a main player (Kacey) to the story who will end up as family for our little Noel and the fact that Noel is in an orphanage now, I don't know how rushed my last chapter seemed or if it tended to drag since I was pretty happy with it, as it was just a intro to the main parts. Any ways, heres chapter number two. Enjoy.**

Weather Changes

 _ **Three years pass by**_

"Come on Noel! You can do it!" Kacey encourages with her arms flailing towards a barely upright Noel. "One! You can do it! Just one more little step Noel! I believe in you!" Kacey carries on to gently and enthusiastically encourage Noel. "She's 3 Kacey… back off a little, if she wants to crawl to you let her crawl" Avery states whilst glancing worriedly towards Noel every now and again. "She wont get hurt Avs. I'll catch her" Kacey rolls her eyes, "Wha- I'm not worried about that! You keep forcing her to do stuff" Avery huffs. "wow Avs. What a dignified comment. Truly elegant for someone of your old age" Kacey states sarcastically. "How rude! You little brat" Avery stomps off huffily. "You'll get _more_ wrinkles!" Kacey calls down the hall snickering when she heard a 'hmph!' down the corridor. "Well done little Noel. I think you've done really well today… ok so next on the agenda… we go down to see Laurette and pick up the food for dinner with Zack." Kacey trails off to herself and picks up Noel to go look for Zack, a young 14 year old boy who's now considered the eldest brother in the orphanage. He has short brown hair and is quite tall for his age. Once they found Zack in the dining room, building blocks with the 8 year old Mickey they set off for Laurette's shop down the street near the middle part of town. It was a small homey and welcoming town not to far off from a few guilds a few ways away so they were considered quite safe however most crime goes unnoticed in such a quiet town, the towns funds are quite lacking so they can't often afford help from big guilds however their small local guild called Wild Wind which was founded by matron Hannah's grandfather in his early years, it seems wind magic is a family trait for them, protects the town free of charge because having a guild meant that those who wanted the town would have to fight but its run by mediocre mages with a few young mages who come in sometimes for a job to occasionally accept whatever little missions they are given, the guild itself acts like a town hall and you can just strut in whenever you feel the need.

As Noel, Kacey and Zack arrive at the store there are some teenage kids kicking up a fuss in an alley next to the store, both Kacey and Zack pay no mind to it, most kids round here formed gangs to feel special, to feel needed, the kids at the orphanage are usually told to stay out of these small gangs to avoid trouble. "Hey Laurrette. You've got some lads down the side of your place again. Didn't the Wild Wind's get 'em last time?" Zack begins, chatting to Laurette as Kacey puts down Noel by his feet to pick up some choice food from the shelves, "Stay here by Zack ,ok Noel?". Noel looks towards her sister and replies with a quiet 'mhmm' showing she understood to some extent. As Kacey walks off Noel picks herself up off the floor into a wobbly standing position and practices her balance. "They are so useless, most of them are just some old smelly men who can barely perform magic," Zack says continuing his previous conversation "and those mages who are actually decent just stroll through town without a care." He looks at his hand "I swear that I will personally whip that guild into shape once my magic develops enough" Zack says as a small whoosh of wind surfaces around his hand and he concentrates on moving it up his arm then, as quick as it came the faint green glowing wind visibly dissipates into the air, the magic Hannah helped him develop. "I promise" he says looking back up at Laurette with a serious expression who smiles back kindly. Noel having witnessed the magic stood in awe with her mouth agape, she concentrates on her hand but when nothing happens after a moment she gives up and is disappointed in her hand. Minutes later Kacey appears back with the food and uses the money from granny despite Laurette telling the orphanage countless times that they can have most stuff for free since her kids are in well known guilds and earn enough to send money down to her.

Ignoring the trouble near the shop the three left the store and set off back to the orphanage with their shopping. "Potatoes and fish for dinner today? Man, I seriously hate this low budget thing" Zack says with a sigh looking down into the bags he's carrying. "Well once we manage to get a little more cash or jobs of our own I'm sure life will seem sweeter… maybe" Kacey says walking slowly with Noel. Zack stops ahead of them and looks back and says "Seems like Noel has walking down alright, we just need to teach her a few more words than 'Mhmm','ok','yes' and 'no'." "Thats true. It'd be nice to actually hold a conversation with my baby sister" Kacey states with a smile towards Noel who smiles back. "Um, you know… never mind" Zack says and turns back quickly. Kacey looks up from Noel and watches Zack in confusion as he walks slowly ahead of them. Nothing much happened on their way back to the orphanage just a few friendly chats and banter now and again, and a few trip ups on Noels end.

 _ **At the orphanage**_

Zack went to go enjoy Mickey's company while Kacey and Noel went to the kitchen with the food to give it to Granny and Avery so they can cook up the potatoes and fish. While they did that Kacey took Noel with her to go and see Hannah. Hannah saw to it that the kids at the orphanage got an education, she also helped mentor them in the ways of her wind magic, most of the kids had difficulty with either them being young and found it hard to concentrate or they didn't seem to have the magical capability to learn it and so many meditated with the innocent wish of being able to protect their small town from the 'bad guys', its wasn't a bad wish in fact it was encouraged since the town really did need protection, their local authorities were lazy. Hannah was usually in the shed out in the back of the orphanage and was normally reading some ancient text she passed off for 'too complicated' or something, she made it her business to decipher texts after she retired from being an active wind mage. "Hi Hannah!" Kacey shouted loudly on purpose to make Hannah jump in her chair… and she did. "Oh my words! I told you to not shout so loudly. I could have been meditating… what did you need Kacey?" Hannah asks after calming down. "I would like to train in wind magic! Please?" she begs Hannah. Hannah looks on and sighs "Your not the only one to want to. But I suppose one more wouldn't hurt" she mumbles the last part to herself then claps her hands together with a smile and looks towards Kacey and Noel. "I suppose you want to learn as well Noel, even though your a little too young..." Hannah looks towards Noel. "Mhmm. Yes!… please" Noel calls out. Pleasantly surprised by the 3 year old's politeness she smiles to herself, "I can help her too matron! We can help each other! She is my sister after all" Kacey grins. Noel grins just as widely as her sister. Hannah sets both Kacey and Noel to do some small meditations to begin with and gives them small guidelines along the lines of 'It may be boring but with perseverance you can-' and tells them not to overwhelm themselves and to stop immediately if they suddenly feel tired then proceeded to tell them about the consequences of using too much magic at once. As soon as both Kacey and Noel left to meditate Hannah turned around on her seat, opened a draw and proceeded to write in a small journal " _X768- Meditation begins for possible future mages, Kacey and Noel. 3 years since Noel being dropped here I can certainly see magical potential in both girls and the uplift in Kacey's mood while Zack show promise for-"_ Hannah proceeds to write about the events that have occurred recently and update her journal on her magic students progress.

In the girl's shared bedroom they both sit silently in concentration with Noel being extremely restless. "Noel… can you please sit still" Kacey said calmly opening one eye to look at her sister who was sat pouting bouncing slightly on the bed. "This is for both of our well-being" Kacey stated with authority "If we can both develop magical abilities by doing this boring stuff then lets do it, I want to help our family here for the time being… and maybe join an awesome guild to get some jewels but most of all, I want to do it with you, my sister, so we can protect each other." Kacey said with a small smile "It wont happen over night but with time we'll be able to help everyone we care about". Noel sat there looking at her elder sister, she listened to her sisters dreams of the future as she carried on telling Noel stories of what they could do with the magic they could obtain by doing their meditation as instructed. Noel saw her sisters resolve and decided that for now she would do this. For her sister just as she was doing for her.

 _ **8 years later of training their magics with meditation and practice. Date: x776 (Noel is 11 and Kacey is 21)**_

"I'm back!" a voice states from downstairs. Feeling giddy all of a sudden I sprint downstairs to Kacey, my sister. "Welcome back sister! How was the job?" I ask excitedly taking her bag to put on the table in the dining room. There's only 5 kids here now all abandoned children around the age of 3 to 7 and they usually stay away from me. Sister follows me to the dining room and sits down to slump on the table. "It was so dull! It was just a small protection job but since we were just a small time last resort guild they didn't even expect me to show up! Those guys seriously underestimate the Wild Wind's power they even had one of the bigger guilds back me up, and get this, it was a girl your age with some fancy sword swirling magic… Erza? Yep. Some little girl called Erza." Kacey stated with a quizzical frown. "Don't underestimate young girls like me sister or you'll regret it" I stated with a huff as I handed her a glass of water. "yeah, yeah." she mumbles her thanks and downs the water. "so hows your magic Noel? I swear I could see some weird shaped clouds from up the street" Kacey says grinning, " That's not fair! I wanted to use wind magic like the rest of you, but I end up moving stupid clouds" I pout and hear chuckling behind me so I turn around to face the new arrivals. Hannah and Zack. "Cheer up twerp. If we all could control the same magic it'd be a boring place here besides I think your magic is soothing" Zack makes his entrance by ruffling my golden hair. "Zack don't make fun of her" Hannah walks towards me combing my hair back into place with her fingers "For all you know about magic she might actually grow to be better than you." Hannah comforts me with her words slightly. "Guys stop messing with my hair! Seriously… I'll cloud you to death" I say making fun of myself with a sad expression while Zack laughs at my comment both Hannah and Kacey share a worried look. " _That jerk Zack"_ I think to myself. Zack makes his way to the head matrons room to drop off some jewels for our next meal while Kacey digs through her bag for something on the dining room table. "Noel," Kacey starts "soon I need to go on a trip,". I always hated it when she started a sentence like that. It made me feel so alone but I understand that she needs to keep up with her rent even though she comes here to give small jewel payments and the missions she goes on are usually low pay so she has to go on loads of small ones all the time. "Oh, when will you be back?" I ask with a tinge of pain in my chest. "Well, its… going to be a few months. Its a big job you see and I need the jewels for my bills and stuff" she chuckles humourlessly and I look to the floor "but," I look back up questioningly "I got you a little gift for the time I'm away so you wont feel too lonely while I'm gone" she grins and pulls out a blue scarf "urm well, I attempted at being somewhat feminine in another competition against that old woman Avery and the challenge was to make an item someone could wear and I chose a simple scarf because as if I could even attempt a shirt or something..." she holds it shyly "actually never mind I'll just go buy a necklace or something haha..." she tries to put it back in her bag before I snatch it away and wrap it around my neck. "No! You should be proud. I'll cherish it. Thank you." I say with a huge smile which makes her smile slightly at my sudden bashful behaviour. "Your such a hypocrite Noel" she says to me and I look at her in question "Your the one who should be proud, being able to use magic at your age isn't exactly common so, keep growing it okay? Maybe you could even control things beyond the clouds" she explains looking me in the eyes. "That blue really suits your eyes Noel, just as I thought it would" she states proudly with her hands on her hips. I sweatdrop and stare at the scarf for a moment and decide to hang it up on the coat stand in the hall way. As I walk back to the dining room I hear sobbing from the cleaning supply room and immediately went over to check on who was in there. A young girl no older than 7 was crouched in the small room with her face in her knees sobbing quietly alone for her mother to come and pick her up. I put a hand on her shoulder and shake her gently to show that she wasn't in here alone any more and she instantly rubbed her eyes and looked away in shame for being caught crying. "Your not going to tell the others right?" confused I ask "Huh? Tell who what?" she replies with "Those other two boys who are always teasing us" she looks down in sadness and starts tearing up "I don't like it here" she states firmly. "Yeah." I agree. "The foods a bit bland isn't it?" I ask and she looks up with a dumbfounded expression. "It does suck, my mum can cook way better food!" she says excitedly standing up, she's a ways shorter than me and looks up then lowers her head back down. "but… she's not coming back. Is she?" I was surprised at the sudden seriousness from the 7 year old and took her hand in mine "Maybe not but, this place has been my family since I was born so I can 100% guarantee its not all that bad" I soothe in a soft tone as I pull her out the closet with a small tug to get her to follow me out. She does so and follows me to the dining room, on the way I realise I forgot her name. "Um sorry but what's your name? I'm Noel" I ask politely and she responds happily with "Carys" I chuckle at her reaction "That's a really pretty name, Carys". She blushes at the complement and shyly says her thanks and I just smile. I usually ate food with Hannah alone in the shed while she taught me different lesson subjects but today I've made a decision to eat with the rest of the orphaned kids, or what's left, the ones from before have all left for a job elsewhere or gone to some guild. While the matrons gathered the children to to dining room me and Carys sat down and talked with my sister Kacey while Zack said his goodbyes and rushed off back to Wild Wind's guild hall to celebrate something. Zack had quite literally whipped those old men into shape with his wind magic while my sister managed to keep all his plans tame and safe for the OAP s and then come back to tell me all about her stories like she was continuing to do now while everyone was gathered. As we all sat at the table it was an awkward silence, I could feel the awkward in waves. It must have been from a recent fight between the boys and girls combined with the fact that me and my sister was here which was probably seen as intruding. "Who're they" one of the two boys rudely commented and before my sister was about to intervene I politely answered "I'm Noel and this is my sister" "Kacey" she said grumpily because of their attitude. "what are your names?" I asked. "I'm Rudey" the black haired one said. "heh. Fits" my sister commented. The boy continued to glare towards my sister which she deserved for her oddly childish behaviour. "I'm Leno" the blonde one answered. "Its nice to meet you two boys" they both grunted. They both seemed to be six years old but oddly rude towards everyone. The girls all stated that they were all transferred from another place and were sisters from and adoptive mother who left them at a different orphanage and so ended up here. They were called Becki and Steph and we already know Carys. Becki was the youngest at five whilst Steph was 6… and a half, she claims. After our introductions the air seemed lighter and my sister stood at the doorway waiting to say goodbye. "I'm sorry that I suddenly returned and have to leave but I promise that I'll be back" she stated sadly, "I know, you always do, right sister?" I reply with a confident look which my sister replicated. "Right" she said as she turned around. I'll be at the guild for a few days waiting for my ride to the job, so if you need something, anything stop by. Ok?" There was a pause before I replied. For some odd reason this goodbye had a made a dreadful feeling occur in my stomach and I hated it, with every fibre of my being but I chose to say nothing and just replied with "Of course. Your my big sister" my reply made her smile which in turn made me smile as well and forget about my previous worry and made me remember, this is my sister, a smart but sometimes childish elegant mage who is efficient in her wind magic and one of the best in her guild. Wild Wind.

Four days later after playing with the young girls in the park, I noticed some of the threads on the handmade scarf my sister gave me were coming loose probably from her not very good job of finishing the scarf off. I gasp in realisation " _I can totally use this as an excuse to see if my sister is still at her guild"._ Giggling I went inside to see granny, "Granny, I'm going to go see is Kacey is still at the guild ok?" after a sound of confirmation I headed off towards town. The guild was towards the farther side of town on the opposite side of the town the orphanage was so its at least a 40 minute walk without disturbance. As I walked past Laurette's shop to greet her, I could smell that smell of burning which is usually from our mayors house, he's always burning something and the smoke almost acts as a beacon heading straight up and I carried on past the centre of town which contained a load of shops however most owners were closed for some reason but before I noticed that the burning wasn't coming from the mayors house I spotted a sight that made my heart ache and my stomach drop, it was a dreadful feeling, one that I hated with every fibre of my being. A feeling I swear I felt not too long ago, accompanied by _this sight._ The guild. In a _flaming blaze, crumbling to the floor with the fiery embers falling below._ How had I not heard the screams until now? Wait. _Screams._ Why had I not heard them until now?! I stood rooted to my spot like a spell held me here. I remained stiffened with a horror struck expression just as people ran towards the guild. The wind mages that stood there useless, looking on sobbing. Despite what I knew about fire and the way it runs on oxygen so wind magic would just feed it. I screamed at the guild members. "Do something! Why are you just standing around?! Aren't you supposed to be accomplished mages?!" The mages looked at me in shock as I continued to cry on my knees before the guild hall. "Save my sister!" I shouted and sobbed in anger to them and in response a storm raged in anger for me. For those angry for being useless. For those who have lost something in that guild hall and for those who were so helpless for being caught up in an unpredicted storm. A storm brought forth by a young girl who was angry at the world.

After a few minutes I felt exhaustion, the storm put out the fire awhile ago and continued to rage on with the help of some of the mages wind magic so the other buildings wouldn't flame up. Unfortunately the storm had destroyed a few of the weaker structured houses but the brave people around instantly ran into the remains of the guild to see if any members were okay. Before I could regain some strength I collapsed, too tired to even move. The last thing I saw before eventually passing out was the 2 or 3 mages who were left watch their guilds sign crumble to ash in front of them.

Wild Wind's suddenly didn't exist and the guild was no longer protection.


	3. Chapter 3

**AU- It got a little heated last chapter but I don't intend to leave the guild burning down without some sort of reason. Here's a chapter showing what happens next. FYI constructive criticism is welcomed because I know I need to improve. And on that note, chapter 3!**

Weather Changes

I opened my eyes, looking around I noticed that I was the floor in a dark building. " _I'm so tired"_ I think to myself. Groggily I move my body only to notice some rope on my wrists. Its starting to scare me. " _Where's Kacey?"_ I wait until my eyes adjust to the oddly too dark room, however when I can finally see what is around me, I couldn't help but catch my breath in my throat. " _Why is are the villagers here? And why are we all tied up?"_ Suddenly I hear footsteps and some people begin to whimper like they know something bad is going to happen which makes me only feel fear in my chest. " _We need to get out. I need to find help… I need to find my sister"_ Those were the only thoughts swimming around in my head as I wait for the person to come in. The door swings open with blinding light that we all cowered from and squinted to see. The persons figure in the light was dark, shadowy. _Evil_. It looked evil and scary. A tall man stood in the doorway and ordered "Get the hell up! You've had your damn rest!" That angry voice made some children cry but silently so they wouldn't face the man's wrath. The man had dark hair and a bandana mask covering the lower half of his face so his scowl in his bushy eyebrows was visible, I could only follow the others in fear of what would happen to me. We were pushed out roughly and guarded to be kept in line by 3 other intimidating men whilst following the other with the bandana ahead of us. We eventually arrived to the mayors front door which caused confusion among those in the group, "Get inside!" bandana man ordered. "What the hell are you doing?! Why are we here?!" one of the villagers shouted, a man in his late twenties wearing a baking apron, in response to his comment he got a kick to the gut and a punch in the face. "Know your place rat! You don't demand anything from the Black Wasps. Your unlucky enough that I can't end your filthy existence. Instead your fate is to work the mines and other jobs for us" the bandana man chuckles loudly after he finishes his sentence. It sends shivers down my spine, I suddenly realise just how useless I really am, if I can only control clouds then how can I even think about escape. I look down hiding my face from the others as we slowly walk in the mayors house. We come to the mayors office and go in one at a time. Some people don't come back out and the ones that do are either women, children or men without any magical ability and they all came out with smoking clothes and burns, then they are pushed away towards the exit of the mansion by one of the Black Wasps, I think they were called? I'm suddenly pushed into the mayors office and I look up. I see our mayor, a fat, balding old man who has a shiny chin and a cloaked man who stares at me from underneath his hood and he slowly walks over towards me and I see his face. I tremble in fear at him. _A monster_. His eyes were black and he had scars forming odd shapes on his face, he smiles a sharp wide toothy grin right in front of me and bends down to get right in my face. My legs shake and I can feel tears stinging my eyes but I can't tear my eyes away from the sight. He touches my shoulder and inspects me from top to bottom making verbal notes as he does so. "Blonde hair, blue eyes, small frame… you look fun to break" he states while slowly backing away and I feel his bony hand slowly leave my face. "Such soft skin, it will be a shame to ruin it with work" he laughs to himself, a devilish noise that I will never forget. "W-why are you h-here?" I stutter trying to sound less afraid than I actually am. "Wouldn't you like to know" he grins leaning on the desk and a black flame forms in his hand as I see him look towards me with a crazed smile. He pulls out a large metal stamp thing from his pocket and heats it till it burns a bright orange. "Without some righteous guild to protect you, I thought me and my guild would be so kind as to help this little town out, give you all jobs and eliminate the weak" as he says that I instantly became conscious of that odd metal bin at the back of the room and the strange smoking coming from it. "Ah, that," he looks at what I'm looking at "its just a bin, I like being tidy and burning things is my hobby" he says turning back to face me and smiles that evil smile while the mayor is sat at his desk happily looking in a briefcase which I can only guess is full of jewels. "Y-you burned our towns guild down!" I shout with a small stutter gaining some confidence with the distance between me and him, which is slowly shattered back into fear as a slowly walks up to me with that heated stamp and I can only guess what he's going to do with that. "W-wait. Pl-please" I say with tears falling down my face as I back up and he grabs me when I get to the wall. "All of this village is owned by me now, girl" he spits in my face with sudden anger. "You and these villagers included. Accept it. Now" I struggle to try and get out of his deadly grip and he burns my shirt open and throws my scarf to the side and the flames scorch my stomach and I realise why the other villagers had burnt clothing, it wasn't from the fire in town, he brings the stamp closer towards me and I can clearly see what is shape is. Its that same symbol on his cloak, a sword with an odd wisp of something around it. Probably a flame. I cry out as he leaves the scorching stamp on the stomach just under my ribcage. "Stop! Please! I-" he clamps a hand over my mouth "BE QUIET, no one can hear this" then after a few moments when I stop resisting he looks down at me and walks away and one of his men grab me and forces me out the door "Wait! Get off me!" I shout with new vigour before I'm forced out the door, "Why have you done this?!" I ask angrily. He looks at me and chuckles "Why do you think, little girl?" and I scowl at him still struggling from the other man until he punches me in the stomach and relights the pain in my body. The cloaked man just laughs at my futile attempts at a struggle when I go limp in the man's arms gasping for breath. "hmmm," the cloaked guy fakes contemplation "because its fun" he grins his wide toothy grin that makes my skin crawl once more before I'm dragged out by this other guy and on my way down the hall I can feel the villagers stares and see Laurette being forced in line while I listen to an endless cackle of that cloaked man in my mind. I'm dragged into the mayors courtyard and see a sight that makes my heart stop. I can't feel the burns any more, just a numb feeling and a wetness on my skin, small soothing cold droplets as I'm forced to watch the town I was raised in burn to the ground with giant grey clouds looming high in the sky from the small hill the mayors courtyard was built on. The air was choking me and I struggled to breathe, if the other towns and cities can ignore carnage on this scale then- " _This is fun to these people? Fun. Isn't fun enjoying time with your family? These people enjoy ruining lives?"_ I think darkly and an anger rises in my chest. They have no right to take what little life I already have. No right at all! " _This isn't fair!"_ This unacceptable behaviour from these damn crooks deserves to be corrected. "I will have my revenge" I said to myself but the guy dragging me heard and just laughed to himself. " _I will have my revenge"_ I think to myself and let my mind remember what they had ruined to fuel my anger even more while I didn't notice the hail throwing hard pellets at everyone in the courtyard.

It took the legal guilds 2 months to decide to do something about the Black Wasp menace in Restibou and two guilds came in and started to fight the Black Wasp while I had gone to find the Cloaked man, he was called Scorch or boss by the other Black Wasp members, all the older people were killed by Scorch and others lives ruined and made miserable with the labour and service we were forced to provide for Scorch and his men, we had to build new homes, clear up our own dead friends and family and bury whatever Scorch decided to not burn to ash, all in all. It was a traumatising experience but I could only give it a cold shoulder as I went to the mayors office as the guilds were fighting with the overwhelming numbers of Black Wasp and although they weren't too powerful and had several ranges of different magicks they had numbers. I put my ear to the mayors door and heard arguing between Scorch and the Mayor. "You idiot! I knew that burning the town would cause an uproar! Now what do we do?!" the mayor screeched "Shut it Fatty! We need to calm down, they only sent 12 mages to fight us and with our numbers it wouldn't be hard" Scorch said. "No way fire rat! I'm out of here!" the mayor said coming closer to the door but suddenly heat burst inside the room and I could see ashes spilling from the crack under the door and shrieked in horror at the sight. The door swings open and Scorch comes out and kicks the ash around without a care "Useless fat ass" he says before noticing me and when he tries to grab me but I dodge swiftly to the side and sprint down the hall. " _What was I thinking?! I can't take this guy on!"_ I thought frantically to myself as I ran. "Hey, little girl. I don't have time for tag" he says with a deeper sounding voice from behind me and then. I do something stupid. I trip up. But as I tripped a whirl of scorching black fire whooshes over me, narrowly missing and I hear a 'tsk' from behind me. It was uncharacteristic for Scorch to not sound like he was enjoying himself, I guess with the legal guilds here he's actually worrying I hope in my heart. And I then scramble to the nearest corner to get out of firing range of his fire balls " _Oh good lord, oh good lord. I'm going to die"_ I think to myself as fear crawls back into me, picking myself up I sprint to the door to the backyard where I hear fighting. I open the door and a guy with a sword charges at me full speed and before I thought about what I was doing I put my arms up in defence and a shot of green illuminated magic shoots from my arm and disarms the man from his weapon and he stands in shock, as do I and some legal guild mage smacks him in the back of the head "Hey there little one, I saw you were having some trouble over here" the mage looks at me and smiles kindly. I hear Scorch running out of the building and he stops in the doorway and looks around at the sight of his men littering the floor and while he scowls I hide behind this mage guy who looked to be in his late twenties, the mage saw that I hid from Scorch and frowned, "You the boss man here? Are you going to put up a fight" this mage also produced a purple flame in his hand as he got into a battle stance in front of me. " _Why does everyone have weird coloured fire?!"_ I think to myself as a fight broke out in front of me. Fighting fire with fire had no effect so both of them resorted to fist fighting and all of a sudden a pink fist flies into Scorches stomach as another one hits him in the face while several others attack him over and over. The purple fire mage steps back "Hey Wakaba this one was mine" he says. Wakaba, the one with a pompadour replies with "I saw you struggling a little Macao, so I thought I'd help out" he laughs and they begin to argue. I ignore their argument as I walk up to Scorch's still breathing body. I kick him. Again. Again. And again until Macao speeds over and puts a hand on my shoulder to make me stop "Hey, he's already been beate-" "NO. He ruined everything! You have no idea what he's done!" I say collapsing to my knees holding my stomach where _that_ mark will linger, crying out. I feel relief and grief at the same time and I don't know whether I should be happy or sad at the turn out of these events but that man, Scorch, killed all the kind oldies and burned my sister. I still have the nagging feeling that I _must_ make him pay, make him suffer but Macao stops my thoughts when he says "That man will be taken in by the council, I promise that he can't do anything else" both him and Wakaba share a concerned look when I don't calm down and continue to cry. "Say," Wakaba started "Do you have anywhere to go?" he finishes and they both look troubled when I shook my head "I-I'm an orphan" I hiccup and then Macao picks me up and takes me to the rest of the victims who were just outside the town sat with each other drinking soup and eating bread while the magic council showed up to take away the criminals. One of the Rune Knights, overseeing the operation to assist the towns folk should any other dark guilds attempt to show up, came up to me with a stiff forced smile asking me if I was okay "I guess" I replied with since I really didn't know how I should be feeling. I sat down away and alone from everyone to eat my soup because they were all complete strangers, I couldn't see anyone I knew but I had a feeling I knew where they were. I looked up at a now clear blue sky. I finished my soup and sat down looking at my hands wondering how I used wind magic. " _I thought I could only move clouds"_ I began thinking to myself " _Maybe I really can be like my sister"_ I thought with a sad smile. I gasp loudly and check my neck, " _Its not there"_ I began to cry silently to myself but Macao comes over "What's wrong?" he asks worriedly "My scarf… its gone, my sister had made it for me" I sniffled, crying sadly. "What does it look like?" I hear. Looking up I stare at Macao questioningly, he repeats "What does it look like?" I look down "Its blue and it has a few strands of wool coming off it… she didn't quite tie it off right" I giggle sadly at my sisters antics. Suddenly I saw Macao heading for the town again and he turned back and shouted "I'll get it for you so just sit there and wait!" and before I could reply he sped off. With a sigh I look back down to my hands and attempted to make something appear. A faint glow and whoosh of wind appeared above my hand and I just stared at it not noticing Wakaba appear behind me. "Hey kid, have you se-… You can use magic?" he sat next to me as I jumped and hid my hands, "Well, before today I thought I could only move clouds but then this..." I say summoning the wind to swirl around my hand again. Wakaba just watches smoking from his pipe as I cough and the wind dissipates again. "Sorry." he apologises with a light chuckle putting his pipe away. "So moving clouds huh? Ever tried to control them, like lightning and stuff? That'd be pretty cool." he says with a grin looking up towards the sky. "No, I never thought about trying that…" I trail off my sentence in thought. " _Could that weird freak storm months ago have been caused by me?"_ I wonder. I try out his theory and summon a cloud, looking up to the new cloud I attempt to create lightning but with no basis except that thought it didn't seem to work. Wakaba saw what I was trying to do and looked at the cloud "How about instead of lightning try to just make a light rain or make it do that dark gloomy thing clouds do" he says fiddling with his pipe, I know he wants to smoke right now but he's being polite. I do as he says and try to make the cloud go dark, the cloud turns a dark eerie colour and I feel sweat on my forehead. Knitting my brows in concentration I feel a small patter of water on me, its a welcome coolness from all the fire from recent events and a light rain begins from the cloud I summoned. Wakaba looks impressed that I actually managed to do it but then his face turns into a distraught expression as he attempts to cover his pompadour from the rain. I laughed lightly at the situation as the cloud dissipates and is replaced by the clear blue sky once again and Macao runs over from the town with a smile and a small blue bundle on his hand. "I wasn't sure if this is it, I found it in the mansion in the mayors office. Sorry it took so long" he said with a small frown. "No! Its the right one, thank you so much Macao" I said with new tears but they were happy tears and wrapped my scarf around my neck, they both smiled and Wakaba turned to me as he got up from next to me "Well kid, we gotta go back to our guild or our buddies will get worried but I was wondering, after you sort out the problems here, you should go to the town a few miles from this one. I have a mate there who can help you with that kind of magic." Wakaba said as he and Macao got turned to leave, Macao got his backpack on one shoulder, turned around and said "Don't forget Fairy Tail! We'll welcome a good mage any day!" which made me smile " _Fairy Tail huh? Certainly sounds weird"_ I thought to myself as I watched them both head off towards their destination. I turned back towards the other towns folk and went to take my bowl to clean, I think I'll head to the other town soon. Hopefully I can train this magic and become a great mage, I sat down and held onto my scarf and went to sleep.

 **AU- I think having Noel join Fairy Tail instantly would ruin the potential of her doing more around Fiore first so she's going on a training trip instead and we'll see how it develops from there. I hope you enjoyed chapter 3!**


	4. Chapter 4

Weather Changes

Chapter four

Three days have passed since the Black Wasp guilds arrest and I couldn't feel any more lost than this moment although the camp provided fresh clothes to wear so I was modestly outfitted in a pale green dress. "Where in the world am I?" I ask nothing with a sigh. Currently I'm very lost in some forest on my way to the next town over, it was at least something like 8 hours away but since I don't have anywhere else to go I thought I might as well go on a quest to train my magic. I've been lost for what feels like hours… and I'm hungry. I sigh again. Suddenly I hear a rustle in some bushes close by, I stand ready for whatever pops out but when nothing does I sprint away in a random direction flailing my arms "Go away!" I shout in fear as I continue to run away from it. I'm in a forest in midday, I'm hungry and scared and unarmed. I'm useless.

As soon as I deem myself safe I come to a stop heaving heavy breaths hoping nothing is following me or trying to eat me. "This sucks so bad" I mumble to myself. I looked up towards the sky almost like it could actually help me but I knew it couldn't however what I did see was apples. Food! In a hurry I try to climb the tree and was surprisingly successful and sat on a tall branch to pluck off an apple. I wiped the apple with the back of my hand and proceeded to chomp it and to my delight it was delicious and probably not deadly. A scuffling appeared near the base of the tree and I quietened myself to stay hidden. "Oh no, I lost her, dammit" I see a man curse and rub the back of his neck just below me, he had black shaggy hair and wore a very distinct orange shirt, it almost hurt my eyes. I move slightly and fumble with the apple core in my hand and dropped it down on the man below. " _Oops..."_ I think to myself hoping he won't look up but just as I feared he looks up and just stares at me for a few minutes. "Oh! There you are! I was looking for you!" he says with a grin. "I'm Toku and I thought you looked lost and I just wanted to help you back to the town" he carries on "Ah! No, um. I'm not a stalker or anything I was just training in the forest and saw you out here complaining about being hungry". I blush from the embarrassing revelation and ask "Training?" He just nods and replies "Yeah. I'm a swordsman. I just like training in a natural environment so I usually come out here." I now notice the sword on his hip. " _I guess if he was bad he would have sliced me up or something"_ I think to myself. "Um, yes. I would like your help to town, please?" I say although it sounds more like a question and he just smiles at me reassuringly "Yeah! Sure, lets go then" he says excitedly. I hop down and walk a few paces behind him. "So what're you doing out here anyway?" he questions. "I was going to the next town from Restibou, there was an accident and I want to learn magic" I answer quietly and honestly. "Hmmm," he looks like he's thinking hard about something "was it that place with all the smoke? Are you okay?" he asks. "Yes I am, but I can't say so for a lot of others" I say tearing up from the still vivid events replaying in my mind. "Oh yeah… sorry for bringing that up" he says with sympathy. "Any ways, we should be at town in 4 hours so are you still hungry?" he asks pulling out a sandwich, "I always carry extra food with me" Toku explains. My stomach growls in response and I blush in embarrassment once again. "Yes, Thank you." I say taking the sandwich and he grins then carries on leading the way to our destination.

The journey was pleasant and peaceful. We arrived at the town with no problems and got here swiftly. I see lots of people buzzing through the town, it looks more populated than Restibou but seems smaller. "Here we are. Its a homey little place if I do say so myself but there's a few rough looking fellas around sometimes" Toku admits. "Thanks Toku, I appreciate it." I say with a smile. "No problem, uhh" he starts then chuckles awkwardly. "Noel." I state. "Yeah, no problem Noel, any time." he says. Its an awkward silence between us as we both just stand outside of town. "Got a destination in mind? I could take you, you know?" Toku offers. " _Well he seems nice enough so if he's offering" "_ I'm looking for someone who can help me develop my magic but I have no idea where to begin" I tell him quietly, embarrassed at my lack of a goal. "Oh! I know the person your after! In fact we share a house." He states proudly. Then I follow him towards his house. " _I'm going to a strangers house and he has a weapon. I regret this decision a little right now."_ I think following Toku to his house.

First thought: " _This isn't a house"._ And its not. Its a _dojo_. A dojo that teaches swordplay and other martial arts. The mage Toku was taking me to lived with him in a shed behind the dojo and helped Toku train his students minds and magical potential while Toku focused on the more physical training. This mage is called Clare. And they lived together because of 'reasons'. "So, what do you need help with Noel?" Clare questioned. "Um, well I want to train my magic" I say shyly at the intimidating woman. She had green hair and wore a distinct pair of orange dungarees which matched Toku. I think its weird but let it slide with no further comment. "Right, and do you know what your capable of?" she asks which makes me wonder. " _What am I capable of?"_ "Um, I can move clouds and recently learned how to make it rain but I can seem to move wind a little bit as well" I say in hope that she can use this information to help me. "I see." she says as she closes her eyes. " This could be interesting" she mutters to herself and nods but I hear it and I worry at her response. "All right, I'll help you." she quickly responds seeing my sceptical look. "Really?! You will?!" I ask excitedly at this turn of events. "Yes, in fact I already have a plan for you to follow, let me jot it down." she says with a dark smile that fades quickly and is replaced with a creepily too kind smile. I think I really will regret this. "Are you familiar with meditation?" she asks and I groan " _Not more meditation" "_ Yes, I'm familiar with it" I admit with an unamused face. My sister made me suffer through it almost everyday before bed. "Here, I want you to follow this strict schedule for meditation everyday, you'll need your magic container to grow significantly, if what you claim you can do is true" Clare says with a smirk. "I'm telling the truth!" I snap and quickly cover my mouth. "I see, I see. I'll believe you." she tells me. "Come back here tomorrow and I'll have some more tasks ready to help you." she tells me while giving me an umbrella. "Be careful out in that _sudden_ rain" she states with another smirk and an emphasis on sudden as she pushes me outside. "See you tomorrow Goldilocks" she says as she closes the door to the shed on me "Its Noel!" I huff opening the umbrella and walking to the dojo where I hear swings of several swords and punching noises.

I ignore the noise and decide to wander around the town for a bit. " _I have no home"_ I think with a long sigh and sit on a bench with shelter and begin some meditation. But after half an hour I smell a strong scent of fresh bread nearby and head in that direction. I stop in front of a small well lit bakery and just stand outside in the rain for a few moments, I have no money so I sigh again and just decide to go wander around some more. _"What did I even come here for_ _?_ _"_ I think but as I begin to walk away, "Hey! You not going to come in?!" I hear a voice yell, " _Why does everyone always shout 'hey!' at me"_ I think with a contemplative frown and decide to turn around "Sorry. Not today. And I'm not far away, please don't shout." I say as I notice a young boy with dirty blonde hair standing in the doorway of the bakery. He was the same height as me so it was obvious he was around my age. He wears an orange shirt just like Toku and it makes me think about who this boy could be. "Um, are you related to Toku by any chance?" as I approach him so I don't have to endure his shouting. He gasps loud and long as if he was holding his breath this whole time "You've met master Toku?!" He _shouts_ getting up in my personal space and putting his hands on my shoulders. "Y-yes, I met him earlier today" I accidentally stutter looking away from his eyes. " _Too close, does he have no semblance of personal space?"_ I thought while he took the hint of me looking away for being awkwardly close. "Aha sorry. But wow! I really want to learn more from master Toku, he's the coolest, he single handedly defended us from a bunch of bandits when we went for a picnic in the forest one time!" the boy says making martial moves like he's trying to replicate the event. "Blaine! Hurry up and close the door, the breads getting cold!" I hear a woman shout from inside the store. "Okay!" Blaine shouts back, "Come in, we can talk some more!" he says pulling me in. "W-wait! I don't want- oh fine" I begin but give up. Blaine sits me at a table then goes into the back of the store. " _What the heck am I doing"_ I think leaning on my hands while eyeing up the store. A brightly lit building with several back to back booth tables near the windows with small tables scattered neatly in the middle here and there. " _Its so warm in here"_ but I'm broken out of my thoughts when a piece of fresh bear shaped bread appears in front of me. "Its free so don't worry, you must be hungry after all" Blaine says sitting opposite me with a grin, _"Its true, I only had that_ _sandwich and an apple hours ago"_ I think while just staring at the bread in silence then looking back up to Blaine to see him egging me on to eat it with his eyes. I pick it up and take a bite, its soft, warm and delicious. "Its yummy" I say after finishing a mouthful of bread then continue to eat it. "Yup! We're the best bakery in town and possibly the world! One day I will protect the town and bake bread just like my family!" he says loudly with clear excitement. "Protecting. I hope you can do it" I say quietly but he hears it and gives a funny look and I look down at the table. "Well, of course I will! I'm training under master Toku after all!" he says with a grin and I look back up with a small awkward smile which he doesn't take notice of and scurries back into the kitchen.

After 5 minutes of me just sitting there silently just watching the rain die down a bit Blaine comes back with two glasses of orange juice. "Here. You were hungry so I thought that you'd be thirsty too" he says passing me the glass. And takes one for himself and clinks our glasses together. "To our friendship!" he says with a smile. "I'm Blaine by the way, if you didn't notice from earlier shouting" he says with a scratch of his neck and a chuckle. " _Is he trying to copy Toku completely, he's like his twin"_ I think to myself and reply "I'm Noel" I take a sip of the juice "Thanks" I murmur and he just smiles then finishes his juice. "So what are you doing here?" he asks. "I'm here to try and learn magic, you know Clare?" I say with a question. "Do I?! She's awesome! Her magic is so pretty, she blasts stuff with weird yellow balls!" he say with stars in his eyes. " _I can't help but think that magic sounds a little scary"_ I think with a sceptical look and he just continues "We can help each other out! I'm going to the dojo tomorrow to train with Toku so we can go together. This is so cool." he says with an almost dreamy look. "What about your other friends?" I ask. His face drops considerably but he still has a small smile plastered on his face "Oh, well. The others aren't really fond of me" he mentions sadly. "Can- can I ask why?" I question with a concerned look on my face not knowing if its a too sensitive subject but as he begins to speak a woman with similar coloured hair pops up with a a tray and clears up our glasses. "Its because he upsets them by kicking butt in the dojo. He's pretty skilled you know" she says with a wink in my direction and I just raise an eyebrow when she sighs "basically no one likes him because he's better than them… and they are obviously jealous that his amazing mother is a fabulous baker" she says with a flick of her hair and a cocky attitude. "Muuuuum" Blaine just groans in embarrassment. "It doesn't hurt to be honest, dear" she says pointing a finger up as if teaching an important lesson. All I can do is stare in awe at her complete confidence in herself. Or she's just super cocky. Either way its amazing. "I'm about to close up and its pretty dark so you should head back home" she says towards me with a motherly smile. Its too much for me, the realisation that I have no home and be forced to sleep in the cold outside and the reminder that this boy like many other children have been raised with a family, a true family, one that loves them unconditionally because they want to, its not just some small orphanage of crying children or false smiles but a true family. I feel tears slip down my face as I look up at the woman who has shock written on her face then I look down and wipe my eyes "I'm sorry" I mutter with a sniffle then she pulls me into a warm and soft _motherly_ embrace. "I see" she says in a kind hushed voice. "Would you like stay here for a while then?" she adds. All I do is slightly nod my head liking the sound of it then realise what I agreed to. "W-what?! N-no, I couldn't! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to impose on you like this" I stutter frantically pulling back. "Too bad! You already agreed so you can't go. I wont allow it." she states with authority and keeps me in place by the shoulders in a gentle grip. "First we'll get you in the bath. Your covered in dirt!" she says as she pushes me inside and through the bakeries kitchen into a small attached house in the back. Blaine just follows without question and continues to smile.

I've finished cleaning myself off and now stand waiting for Blaine's mother to bring me some clothes. After a moment she enters back in the bathroom, "This dress should fit you, its one I wore as a child" she says in a nostalgic voice. She brought a nice white dress with a red bow tied at the back and had small red accents at the bottom. A nice plain dress. After I got dressed I followed her out the bathroom, "U-um thank you..." I say sincerely and a small smile. "I always wanted a baby girl" she says as she wipes a tear from her eye "just call me mother" she states with a smile towards me as we head to the dining room where a nice smell was coming from. "Mmmm vegetable stir fry" she mumbles with a sniff to the air.

Blaine's mother sits me at the table and her husband gives her an odd look as if to say 'Who is that and why is she here' and she just giggles saying something I can't quite hear but the man just smiles and prepares four dishes. The food arrives at the table and Blaine runs down as if he has psychic powers to be able to sense foods presence and he jumps into his chair next to me with a big grin "Stir fry!" he shouts and I wince at the volume. And he apologises. "Blaine, I've told you before," his mother chastises "don't shout at the table." she finishes while sitting down with knives and forks and passes me a pair of cutlery. "I know" Blaine mumbles and we they the dinner while I just push it around my plate a bit. "Noel, don't just push it around your plate," I look up in surprise and feel a bad feeling flutter in my stomach. _Fear._ "please, we won't hurt you, the food is perfectly edible." Blaine's mother says in a kind tone which makes the feeling in my stomach go away and I silently take a bite of my food. " _Its good"_ I think to myself and continue to eat it. "So, I hear your a new addition to our humble family, Noel." Blaine's father says towards me and I snap my head up and look to Blaine's mother who mouths a 'say yes' towards me while Blaine nudges me, I look to him and see an encouraging smile. "I- yes, I believe I am." I say with a smile looking back down at my food. The man chuckles really loudly that makes me look up again. " _I see why Blaine is so loud"_ I think while restraining myself from covering my ears. "That's good! Now we can skip the crying baby stage!" he says with another loud chuckle while the woman elbows him hard in the ribcage which makes him cough and sputter. "Like I said earlier. I always wanted a daughter." she said as her face softened looking towards me. I listened as the family continued their chatting and eating. " _I'd really like to stay if they'll have me"_ I thought taking another bite.

Sleeping arrangements, its convenient they had an extra room for guests but I suppose its my room for now. Mother insisted that I call her so because she 'said so' with sparkling eyes and as a request from the people letting me stay here I couldn't refuse. " _They are too kind"_ I evaluate in my mind, wondering why they would do this but came up with nothing except that its out of the kindness of their hearts. A knock on my door brought me out of my reverie. Expecting them to just walk in I just sat there in silence, waiting. "...come in." I say after a minute or two since it got awkward. "I thought you would never let me in" Blaine said walking in with a small relieved sigh "Mum told me to bring you these, its just a few change of clothes and she said she'll come and check on you soon when she's cleaned up the bakery a bit." he said. "Thank you" I said while standing to take them out of his hands. "Say, Noel. How old are you?" Blaine questioned. "I'm 11… why?" I ask. "Yes!" he shouts and makes me shuffle back a bit. "I mean, I just wanted to know who was the older sibling… and I am! Since im 13!" he says with a grin, clearly proud of himself but what shock me most was the fact he accepts me as family already but then again I suppose so does his mother and father. It really does make me happy and fill me with so much warmth that I can't help but smile. Except, the only thing missing is Kacey, my older sister. The thought makes my smile drop again and Blaine notices. "What's wrong Noel? Wait! I mean only if you want to tell me of course!" he shouts defensively. "Its okay. I just. Its… my sister, I miss her is all" I say looking to the side. "Can you tell me about her?" he says with a big smile and a kind voice after a moment. "O-only if you want to." I reply shyly and he nods his head vigorously and I proceed to tell him about her amazing magic and guild work combined with all the fun we had as a family together. "She sounds like the coolest sister! Definitely awesome enough to be my older sister too!" he says thoughtfully with a grin and a nod which surprises me. "You readily accept her and me as your own?" I say shakily. He just stops smiling and grips my shoulder, "Of course, any sister of my sister is family, obviously. And I'll readily accept someone as cool as her!" he says. I can't help but smile widely with him. His mother walks in and claps her hands "Okay, okay, time for bed you two, its already late." Blaine makes whiny noises and trudges out the door muttering a goodnight to both of us while his mother stays and puts me to bed, turns off the light and sits down in a chair by the bed I'm laying in with a book. "I thought I'd read you a night time story, if you want. I picked out the best one, The stars night. Its about the stars keeping the night bright together, I won't spoil the rest" she said holding the book up. With a small nod and "yes, please" from me, she began telling me a tale about how the night was too dark and people feared it, so the small kindling souls watching their loved ones from the sky came together to brighten the night to show everyone that they are always looking on from above and how many people gazed and acknowledged them every night so they used meteor showers to spread the love they felt despite not being able to be directly by their sides. After the story I fell into a calm rest.

 _Bang! Bang!_ Loud bashing was what had woken me up just now and with a groan I got up and grabbed the clothes left out for me from last night. "Hey! Are you up yet Noel?! I'll come in you know!" I heard Blaine shout from the other side of the door and hurriedly got dressed in a new light blue dress with a darker blue collar and some knee socks ready to go to the dojo. I swing open the door and Blaine accidentally knocks quite heavily on my head. "Ow, ow, ow" I mutter holding onto my head. "Wha?! S-sorry Noel! Are you ok?!" he shouts in frantic worry and mother storms down the hall like she's on a war path and brutally whacks Blaine out the way with a splat on the wall, she ignores the damage to Blaine. "Noel are you ok?" her face softens when she checks me over and I just look on in shock of the situation but when Blaine just pops right back up my worries completely disappear. "What was that for?! I apologised!" Blaine shouts at mother and her face darkens with a scary smile but before she shouts at him I hurriedly go to defend Blaine and hug her tightly. "I-its okay… m-mother, it was my fault I hadn't warned him as I opened the door" I admit with tears threatening to spill over _"I don't want them to fight. Just be happy please."_ I thought with my eyes shut tightly so the tears wouldn't fall. "… oh, then I'm sorry Blaine." she says kindly and back to normal and it makes me smile but Blaine's face looks pained at how his mother is acting "r-r-r-r-right. I-I-I m-m-mean. Sorry for h-h-hitting you Noel" he stutters badly and flees downstairs which makes me raise an eyebrow. "Okay Noel. I'm going to finish up breakfast" mother says as she calmly walks downstairs to the kitchen. I stand outside my door in confusion until I hear a loud laugh from behind me. "That was quite a show Noel! Never seen mother back down in a fight before!" Blaine's father booms. I'm fairly certain the neighbours hear this family's every conversation, I feel sort of sorry. "I wouldn't worry about there fights, its normal and nothing to worry about" he chuckles as he walks downstairs and I follow him down feeling worried but slightly relieved that they are all so lively.

After breakfast me and Blaine headed to the dojo. "Oh man! This is just so cool! My little sister is magic and I'm going to be the greatest martial artist in the world! We make the best team!" he says excitedly with a hand up expecting a high five. I high five him "We will have to train hard to be the best you know?" I say sceptically. "Nothing but the best so I guess I'll have to step up my game! Lets do this!" he says loudly with a fist pump as we walk into the dojo. "All right, we'll split up here but meet me when you get a break. I won't stop till you find me!" he says running off into the dojo. " _I seriously feel like I barely talk to these people, I should try to open up a bit more, maybe this loud family will help… or end up speaking for me"_ I think with a sigh while going round to the back shed where Clare should be. I knock on the door and hear rummaging and wait outside amused by the sounds. Finally the door opens. "Hi Noel. We'll be outside today" Clare says shutting her door and walks past me with a coat in her arms and I look at her questioning her actions but she just motions for me to follow. "So your talkative today." she says sarcastically, " _I knew it, I must seem antisocial or something, I just don't really know what to say." "_ Where are we going?" I ask not replying to her rude sarcasm. "Just doing some shopping, I'm low on milk for coffee." she states nonchalantly. I just stare at her. "Am I not training my magic today?" I ask with concern. "Of course you are," she says looking at me like I'm stupid. "so make it rain." she says putting on her thin orange coat and popping up the hood then zipping it up. She looks like an orange, oversized traffic cone. "What?" I just ask. "You heard me, make it rain."

I summon some clouds, holding my hand up with my palm out and put effort into turning the clouds grey while she looks at me with a straight face, I let out a breathe I didn't realise I was holding and take in some much needed oxygen. A bead of sweat slides down my face as I force the rain to fall down with my eyes closed in concentration. "Why are you thinking so hard?" she asks the moment I get a few drops to fall which makes me lose concentration and the clouds return to white but remain overhead. "Wh-What are you on about?" I heave out my words while quite out of breath. "I'm saying, think of the clouds as a gentle aid to help you, a force you can and can't control, loosen that rope of concentration. The weather is unpredictable, it won't answer to direct command so… just think of yourself as a catalyst not its master." she finishes what she says then continues to walk to the middle of town. " _Not its master?"_ I contemplate her words and follow her into a small corner shop and she pays for her milk and we leave. "Try again." she commands. I do so. I raise the palm of my hand up towards the sky noticing that the clouds are already above me and so I just look at them in question. Without having to summon them again I furrow my brows in concentration. I watch until Clare says, "No, relax, what are you trying to do" she looks at me sceptically. I raise my brow and look up at her. "Make them go grey?" I say although it sounds more like a question. "And does making the clouds turn grey make it rain?" she says with slight anger. "No" I shyly mutter looking at the floor. "So just will it to rain or are you stupid? Were you lying to me? Right now I feel like I'm wasting my time." she says looking at her nails nonchalantly. "I-I'm not a liar!" -drip- " _She keeps looking down on me. She's done this before." "_ I just! I just-" -drip- "I need to learn magic, get stronger, like my sister." I say calming my anger but instead I cry at my helplessness, at not being competent enough. " _It hurts. To be this weak."_ I sniffle but I feel a coldness on my shoulders. A soothing coolness that makes me look up to get a look at what's happening. _"This happened somewhere before"_ I thought looking at the beautiful drops of rain shimmering in the sunlight. "That's one way of doing it I suppose. Emotions are just as unpredictable."Clare droned on muttering something to herself. "See I told you. You didn't even need to think about it, just make yourself some clouds and wham." she says looking at her watch. "What the heck." I just sigh to myself. "Since you did it I guess we can move on." she says looking back at me. "But I don't feel like I've done anything." I backtrack. "You made it rain." she says plainly like it wasn't even an obstacle and walks back to the shed while I trail behind her. The rain clouds following me but I can't help but feel comforted by it.

Outside the shed she stops and looks up. "You gonna make it rain all day or what?" Clare says to me. I just look at her funny. "I can't just tell it to stop at the snap of my fingers" I say moodily. She eyes me up with a frown and sighs. She pulls up her hand and a puddle of water splashes up and hovers over her hand in a ball and she looks down at me. "Do this." I wait for an explanation. "Oh, extend your magical aura to the outside like you do in meditation but… try to feel the element of water around you, how it flows elegantly in droplets to the floor." I close my eyes and extend my aura like she said, I feel the droplets on my skin, and as the small drops fall through my invisible aura. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of water I feel piercing my aura like a deadly weapon. "Don't succumb to it, mould it. To where you want it to be. You can't stop waters flow but you can mould it into a shape with magic." Clare mentions but I barely absorb the information. "Okay then, lets stop here. You must be feeling tired right?" _"Now that she mentions it, I am. Not heavily exhausted but I can feel a small fatigue, like I've been for a jog"_ I realise. As soon as I consciously close off my magic container from the outside the clouds drizzle the last of the water they had made and dispersed leaving a bluer sky. "Hmmm." Clare hums to herself. "You weren't lying when you said you were familiar with meditation. Your magical container is quite the size for you to be able to hold on through a shower like that. " _My body aches"_ I think to myself. "It wasn't a powerful pour but it was something, more than I expected." Clare tells me like she's making mental notes. "I think we'll finish here for the time being but I want you to try and control the rain more but… don't." she says not quite sure how to put it. "That makes no sense." I say with an 'are you okay?' look. "Think on it a bit more, any ways, I want more meditation at home! And try to move the water from taps or something. Well, see you." she says opening her shed door. "Wait! When should I come back?" I ask hoping she hasn't given up on me. She faces me from her door. "Three days. Come back in three days and I expect you to be able to make it rain without fault! Just don't make it all gloomy around here!" she says while shutting her door. With a sigh of relief I walk to the dojo to go and find Blaine.

I quietly open the door to the building and look around at all the people practising different martial arts together. "Oh, its little Noel." I hear someone say with surprise in their voice. Its Toku. "Hello." I say quietly trying to meet his eyes, "I finished my training with Clare for the time being." I say to ease his surprise a bit. "Yeah, I expected you to be with her and not here, what can I do for you?" Toku asks with a wide grin. "I'm looking for Blaine." I say while looking back into the dojo. "I sent him out a while ago to train in the rain." Toku answers. "He should be round the side of the dojo near the big tree." Toku points me into the right direction and I head over.

As I get closer I just watch Blaine swing a sword around in rhythmic motions. "Noel! I've been waiting for ages! I wondered if you'd just leave me here!" Blaine shouts heading over towards me. I just shake my head. "I wouldn't. Are we going back to the bakery?" I ask, "Home," Blaine corrects "Its your home now. And yeah, lets go."

On the way back with the sun gleaming a tired orange we approached the door to the bakery and walk in then sit at a booth. "I'll go grab some food and juice." Blaine says shooting off to the kitchen. I wait quietly just staring out the window. " _Home. This is fun."_ I think with happily. Then Blaine comes charging back in with bear bread and orange juice like yesterday. I ate the food happily and listened to Blaine's day, "I swiped at the rain with crazy precision! I didn't miss a single drop." he claims proudly. "What did you do with Clare?" he asks looking at me expectantly. "We went and bought some milk." I say and he just raises an eyebrow nodding for me to continue. "She said that I shouldn't control my magic but at the same time I have to control it. I don't understand." I reveal with a downtrodden expression. "Ah! Toku said the same thing to me when I was training a few years ago! I think he means that if you will it then it will happen but then you have to guide the sword to its destination. Its willpower!" Blaine says loudly trying to make sense of their wisdom. " _Willpower? I think I understand where he's coming from. Just will it but guide it?"_ I think with some understanding. "I think I understand a bit more. Thanks Blaine." I say and he smiles with a nod and I finish my juice then we get up to put our mess away and clean up. "How was it today, Noel?" mother says while wiping down a counter for tomorrow. "It was very helpful and I think I understand my magic a bit more." I reply and she nods, "That's good. I prepared the bath for you so go in first." she say looking towards me. I nod and head to the bathroom. I undress and dip into the water and wash my hair then just relax. " _I could practice water magic here I guess."_ I think. I let my magical aura out and feel the water around me, its too much, much more than the rain, I feel oppressed. Like I'm drowning. " _Don't let it overwhelm you."_ I hear in my head and then relax. I take a deep breath to prove I'm not drowning to myself. Its warm. Like a light hug or the sun on skin. I open my eyes and lift my hand out the water and use my magical aura to shape an invisible container above my hand and will the water to move from the tub to above my hand. Slowly the water flows up above my palm into a small ball and continues to grow until I drop it with a knock to the door. "Noel can you please hurry, I'm all sweaty from earlier!" I hear Blaine shout from outside the door. With memory of what happened last time I decide to reply. "I'm coming out now!" I shout grabbing my pyjamas and putting them on, light pink matching shirt and trousers. And walk out with a towel on my shoulders drying my long hair. "Its free." I state walking down the hall and leave him to go in. " _Well it's a start to water magic and I did it just like Clare said"_ I think walking into my room. Before dinner I take the 40 minutes of down time to meditate on my magic. "Dinner is ready!" I hear father bellow from the kitchen.

After dinner I get in my bed and stare at the white ceiling. My eyes flutter shut and I drift into a dreamless sleep, waiting for the next three days to be over quickly.


	5. Chapter 5

Weather Changes

Chapter five

The sun shines brightly through my curtains and disturbs my sleep. "Why sun?" I mumble as I get a knock on my door, "Noel! I'm going to the dojo! See you later!" I hear Blaine stomp through the hallway and sit up to get dressed. I have to wait three whole days until I can go back to practice with Clare but she gave me a task. A task I will do.

Stepping out of my room I can smell breakfast from downstairs and speed walk to the kitchen. "Ah, Noel, good morning." I hear mother say with a glance over her shoulder and she sets two plates on the table. "Dad is out today on a trip to rekindle his baker-ness again" she says with a long sigh and a smile. "What are you going to do today?" Mother asks me while I finish my mouthful of food before I answer. "I'll practice making rain." I say as I take another bite of bacon. She looks at me sceptically. "Making rain?" she pauses to contemplate, "So you made that drizzle yesterday?! And the downpour before that?!" she says basically leaning across the table almost in my face as I finish another bite. "Um, y-yes?" I say shyly wondering why it was so interesting until she grabbed my hands and looked into my eyes with her own, "That's fantastic! So weather magic?!" she asks excitedly. "Its probably an accurate name." I say with a quizzical expression. "You could help us with the drought we suffer through the summer next year. My daughter is so kind and helpful." mother states with a dreamy look like she sees the future as she backs away with her hands clasped together. She doesn't stop any time soon so I carry on eating.

"It was yummy." I say when she snaps out of her daydreaming. "Of course it was! I prepared it." She says firmly for no objection and I had none, it was really good after all. "I'm going out now. See you soon… mother." I say as she takes our plates to the kitchen. "Be safe!" she shouts from the kitchen. I put on my shoes and walk out the door, closing it behind me. I walk to just out the village so I don't disturb the nice weather with the rain. I take a seat on a rock near a small pond and look to the sky. "Hello clouds." I say as I see them gather above me. "Please rain." I mutter looking up while releasing magic power into my clouds to fuel them with energy, I feel my magic seep out but no rain drops from the sky. " _That was slightly disappointing, and I'm talking to clouds now?"_ I look around to see if anyone heard me talking to myself. Sighing in relief, I look back up. "Please rain, a little bit?" The clouds grow bigger. "For me?" I say trying to convince them to do something while feeding a bit more magic. They just grow bigger, a bit _too_ big. "Um..." I say. " _This is so sad."_ I think to myself, feeling my confidence drop, if I had any before this. I try to make the clouds smaller but end up moving the whole giant cloud and in that moment a crash of lightning hit the earth next to me as I jumped ten feet into the air while shrieking. The crash left a dark patch of grass and an oddly fascinating pattern on the floor. Looking up I realised that I seem to have overfed my clouds and then a strong downpour flooded down as I held my hands up willing it to stop… it did. " _I stopped it!"_ I exclaim internally with excitement. As I move to put my hand down, the rain starts again. So I move it back up with eyes shut tight. It stops. I look at my hand. _"Aha! The mighty me has control!"_ I cockily think. "Oh no, my inner thoughts are getting a revamp." I say aloud with a sweat drop because I know that my new family is rubbing off on me already. " _Great."_ I think. With my hand motion now a signal for it to rain heavily… I can't put it down. I need to make it rain but a heavy downpour isn't fun. With quick thinking I lower my hand to bring the excess water and just

stand in it. I concentrate to gather water to create a dome around me but instead a flash of lightning hit me. I jumped swinging my arm high in the air to stop the rain immediately so I could check myself for damage but as I look all I feel is an odd sensation of 'I need to move really fast right now.' so I begin to run but as I do so I notice that this isn't a normal running speed and slam right into a tree. "Owwww!" I shout holding my face from the pain of the impact and suddenly more water falls from the sky from me lowering my hand. I sit in the cold and heavy rain, holding my currently in pain face. Great.

I raise my hand once again to stop the water and with a motion to the left, the clouds spin in that direction but as a small storm. I watch it for a moment to see that the spinning has gathered more clouds and grew in size but I felt no more connection to it, yet it continued to grow. " _Maybe that's what Clare meant by you can't control it completely. I just let loose a storm by letting go… I just let loose a storm by letting go!"_ I exclaim in my head with a big smile. "Ohhhh. Be the catalyst. I feel so dumb." I say with a depressed tone but at least I understand now. It feels good to learn. But what I need to regain control? Leave that for later. In just ten minutes I've understood quite bit about my magic. " _This is going to be a long day."_ I think sitting down by the tree I head butted not too long ago. Rubbing my head from where that lightning struck me, I get to thinking, " _That sudden boost. Definitely useful but dangerous, I should make sure to talk to Clare about it."_ I get back up and summon more clouds above me to restart my training from scratch. I make sure not to overload the clouds with my magic and they look significantly smaller than the mayhem I made a few moments ago. Lifting my arm to signal the clouds to drop water onto the earth below and as they let down the light drizzle that I expected, I smiled gently up towards the sky and slowly lower my arm while willing the pace of droplets to continue. I stood there in the quiet raining forest, letting the droplets cool my skin as I began to meditate on my magic.

About two hours later I emerge from the forest and note the clearer, prettier sky. " _It really is a beautiful colour. Our sky."_ I think to myself shielding my eyes from the glaring sun, crossing to the path that leads straight down the middle of the town. I walk past the dojo and walk towards the bakery, home. I approach the bakery and notice people sitting inside. Since its lunchtime its pretty busy. " _I didn't think this place was actually too popular."_ I admit in my head.

I walk in with a ding from the bell above the door but no one seemed to notice except mother who looked over and smiled while giving a customer their change and purchase. "Hello Noel, welcome home." Mother greeted after she thanked the customer for their purchase. I just nod in response and she signals me over, I follow. Mother took me to the kitchen "I wasn't exactly sure what you like but I made you a ham sandwich for when you came back." she said handing me the sandwich. "Thank you." I replied while taking it from her outstretched hand. "Your welcome." she says coolly but rushes off to help another customer. I look at the sandwich and unwrap the film over it to take a bite. " _Yummy!"_ I think with a blissful expression. I like ham. I finish the food and decide to walk around the town.

As I say good bye to mother and some usual customers give me a nice sending off despite not knowing me, I step back out the door to meet the midday sunlight. Walking down a path to the centre of town I reach the fountain which situated in the middle. I decided to go over and sit on it however before I reached it a person bashed into me really hard and I toppled to the floor. "Ow. That was rude!" I raised my voice to the white haired person. They looked up from having their face slammed into the cobble with a bleeding forehead and tears in their eyes, instantly I swooped to remove the tears with my hand out of instinct and quickly pulled back. " _What the heck am I doing?!"_ I think confused at myself. My reaction made the girl smile and wipe at her forehead. "Eheh, Sorry." She said in a small squeaky voice and pushed herself up and lent me a hand. "Um, thank you." I say feeling a bit embarrassed from my previous rudeness but don't apologise. She did slam into me. "Who the hell are you?" I hear a feminine voice snarl behind the girl and look past her as she turned to address the person. "It wasn't her fault Mira! I ran into her." the one who pushed me admitted rather frantically. "Oh yeah?" she says forcefully. Behind the girl with a pony tail was a muscular looking guy with a bowl hair cut. "Big sister, p-please calm down. Lis ran I-into her." he said shyly despite looking so big. "Whatever. Come on Lis. We need to find a place to sleep then make our way out of this stupid place." the goth looking one spat. "Okay!" the youngest said happily then she turned to me. "Wanna help us find a place? I'm Lisanna Strauss by the way. What's your name?" Lisanna said in one big cluster of words with a smile. "I'm Noel but I don't think I can help you, I've only been here a few days." I say feeling useless. "Great, a worthless brat." the eldest said turning to walk away with her brother. I pouted at the name calling but didn't back chat. "Don't worry about my sister, she's always a bit mean. She's Mirajane and my brother is Elfman, he's a bit shy." she tells me their names but makes no effort to catch up with them which they notice and stop walking to wait for her. "You should come explore with us! It'll be fun." she says with enthusiasm. Since I was going to do it anyway, the company might not seem bad. "O-okay." I stutter and she takes my hand and drags me towards her siblings. Mirajane just scowls at me. "Picking up strays Lis?" she says with a smirk. I frown "I'm not a stray." I mutter under my breath angrily. "What was that brat?" she says back with renewed anger. I say nothing more and she continues to look at the town map in her hands. " _Ugh. Great, I can feel the awkward in the air."_ I think to myself.

Walking down a path that hopefully led to hotels Lisanna began to ask personal questions. "Do you live here Noel?" she asks curiously. "I do. I live in a bakery not far from the centre of town, its cozy and popular. The family their took me in a couple of days ago." I said not afraid to tell her about my life here. "What about you Lisanna?" I ask cautiously wondering why these siblings are wandering around together. "Oh um. Well our parents they..." Lisanna began to tear up and I react by squeezing her hand. "Its okay. You don't have to tell me but I'm here if you need me. Okay?" I say reassuringly, back at the orphanage I got used to lots of crying children and the saddening stories that went with them but I realise that despite my commonness with the subject its not easy on the ones experiencing the loss. Lisanna just squeezed back. "Okay, thanks Noel." she smiles sadly through her tears. "Ugh! This wretched-!" I hear Mirajane curse looking through her bag whuch currently had a huge gash in the bottom. "Damn this stupid town! We've been had!" she says angrily to herself while Elfman has a fearful expression written on his face. "W-w-what do w-we d-do?" Elfman says while cowering. "Where will we sleep now?" I hear Lisanna says next to me and frightened. I decide to speak up knowing that they couldn't sleep outside. "Um, I could check if you c-could stay with me for a few-" I began to stutter after being put under Mirajane's angry gaze and give up speaking since my message got across. "Really?!" Lisanna says happily. "I can check." I say easily looking at Lisanna while I hear Mirajane click her tongue and Elfman stops cowering. "What damn choice do we have?" Mirajane mutters.

Outside the bakery, "This is it." I say shakily not knowing ifthis is taking advantage of this family's hospitality too much. "Come in and sit at a table." I say opening the door letting them come inside and smell the fresh bread. I sit them at a booth near the door. "Wait here for a moment, I'll go see mother." I say but they seem too busy looking around at the building and people watching out the window. I speed walk to the kitchen nervously. "Made some friends already Noel?" I hear mother say without looking up from the bread kneading. I begin to sweat at not knowing about the response I would get. "What's wrong?" she says looking away from her work. "Um, I-" I begin. "Its okay, Noel. You can tell me anythin." she says reassuringly while wiping off her hands. "My friends need some help." I say looking down. "I was wondering if they could… sleep in my room for a few days." I say and she looks at me without a smile. "Just a few! A-and They won't be b-bothering you." I say tearing up, wondering if I would have to let the Strauss siblings down. "Aw don't cry," she says soothingly wiping at my face. "there's no need to cry, my little Noel. Of course they can stay." she says patting my head. "You'll have to introduce me to them though. That's my condition." she states her condition with confidence and I nod. I bring her to the table to meet the Strauss siblings. "This is my Mother," I say for the siblings. "and this is Lisanna, Mirajane and Elman." I introduce them all. "Hehe, what cuties." Mother giggles to herself which makes us all feel abit worried but Lisanna speaks up, "Don't be creepy-" she says but covers her mouth. It was either instinct or normalcy for her and Mirajane just laughed while Mother giggled and Lisanna and Elfman both looked a bit embarrassed, no idea why he was though. "Well it's nice to meet you three and I hope we get along. Noel, why don't you show the girls to your room and the young man to Blaine's." she suggested but it was more like an order phrased kindly. I nod at her and motion them to follow. I take them through the kitchen with Mother continuing making her bread. "Your mums so cool, Noel!" Lisanna said with excitement. "She is." I say with a smile. "The living room is to the right and kitchen and dining room back down the way we came." I say making my way to the stairs. "Up here is the bathroom, my room, Blaine's room, parents room and a small storage room." I mention pointing to the correct rooms. Mirajane speaks up when I finish, "Who's Blaine?" she says with attitude. "He's my brother and friend, he's at the dojo right now training." I answer with a scowl to match her attitude which she returns. "Trainin' for what?" she says but doesn't quite make it seem like a question. "He's going to be a swordsman, if you must know." I say snootily which makes her click her tongue and look away. "Um, anyway, I want to see your room Noel!" Lisanna ends with excitement. "Okay." I answer simply and open my door to let them in but Elfman just stands outside shifting awkwardly. "You can come in." I say looking at him. "I-I can't go into a girls room, Mirajane won't be h-happy." he says in a small voice. "Elfman… I'm letting you in. You have my permission, don't worry." I say gently and he slowly shuffles in with a quiet response that I couldn't quite hear. "What a boring room." I hear Mirajane say with boredom lacing her voice. "That's not polite sis." I hear Lisanna scold gently. "I suppose you'll be sleeping here tonight so um, do you have spare clothes?" I ask. "Yes." I hear both Lisanna and Elfman respond holding their rucksacks up but Mirajane just crosses her arms and glares at my floor. I sigh. " You can't sigh at me brat! Its not my fault your stupid town is full of crooks!" she says angrily with a glare. "I'm not the one who robbed you! And you should look out more!" I glare back, _"she insulted this wonderful town, the town which has taken me in for the time being, I'm not backing down."_ I think maddened by her rudeness. The wind picked up outside my window as the sky darkened from the clouds. "Well maybe I shouldn't have to if the authorities were half decent at their job!" Mirajane shouts back. Rain hits the window as my anger rises. "The police can't take care of every mugging in town and if they could help you'd probably scare them anyway!" I take a jab at her style. "I don't want some nameless orphan to judge me about being scary!" and in return she jabbed at my abandonment, she clashed her forehead with mine to gain some advantage over me but I clashed back as thunder began to roll outside and lightning flashed hard outside. Both of us not backing down growling at each other as the weather kept its pace of flashing and thundering while Lisanna and Elfman looked on in worry. "Guys, please don't fight." I heard Lisanna whimper. A loud banging on my door made me back off a little as Mother stomped inside with a scary looking face and pulled us apart. "Noel!" Mother shouts at me and I feel fear take over me and by look look on Mirajane's face she feels the same. "Its raining outside and I just put out the washing this morning!" She says angrily to me which I return with a dumbfounded look. " _She's not scolding for the fight?"_ I think astonished. "Turn it off now!" she says huffily which makes the siblings look at us weird. I look outside and notice the storm that my magic had created without my knowing, I will it to drift off and the clouds dissipate slowly. Mother just nods like I did something she approves of and stated "Father is cooking dinner and Blaine will be back at soon. You have one hour till dinner is ready at 7." she then exits with a soft shut of my door. "Your a mage?" I hear Mirajane say with an impressed look while Elfman and Lisanna just stare at the sky watching it. "I am." I say with caution. "Me too, I misjudged you twerp." she says like I've been seen in a new light. "Thanks?" I reply not sure what to say to that. "Hey, Noel! You made it rain?!" Lisanna asks in amazement. "I-I did, it's not that cool though." I admit shyly and Lisanna shakes her head, "It is cool! Me, Mira and Elf share a magic so it awesome to see new magic, we use Takeover but I'm not as good as those two yet." she pouts at the fact. "Then lets get better together Lisanna." I say liking the sound of growing our magics. "I'm only nine so I won't be too good yet." she mumbles to herself. "That's okay because I'm only two years older so I'm not too amazing either." I admit. Lisanna gasps which makes me jump a bit. " _Is she out of oxygen?!"_ I think frantically. "Your the same as Mira! You can train together and I'll train with Elfman!" she states like she has a solid plan. I look at Mirajane and she looks back then turns her head with a click of her tongue while Lisanna just giggles.

Mother called us down for dinner and we all sat at the table, its a tight fit since only four people usually sit at it but it was all right, it felt like a family. " _I don't think I should think that this feels like a_ _family_ _since its temporary though."_ I think sadly and tuck into my meal. Suddenly a large bang sounds throughout the house. "Sorry that I'm late!" we all turn towards the kitchen as Blaine runs in out of breath and shouting at the top of his lungs. "I thought I said not to be late this morning!" Mother huffed angrily. "I'm sorry, a storm chased me while I was training in the forest then I got super lost." Blaine explains as he sits down at the table. " _Whoops."_ I think but not feeling too guilty. Everyone looks at me while Blaine just tuck into his food, I quickly do the same looking no one in the eye. Everyone then carries on eating like it normal even though it isn't although Elfman seems more uncomfortable than the rest of us. "Oh! Who are you guys?" Blaine asks like he just noticed. "I'm Lisanna Strauss." Lisanna states happily. "I'm Mirajane and this is Elfman." Mirajane mumbles through her food. Elfman just gave a small nod. "That's cool. Noel made friends all ready!" Blaine shouts across the table, Father just laughs loudly through the awkwardness of our dinner like its a joke. "Thank you for having us." Lisanna says putting her fork down and smiling at us. "Its no problem sweetie, stay here as long as you need." Mother says smiling back as Father nods firmly. "Oh dear! I'll run the bath for you, just put your dishes in the kitchen when your done." Mother says getting up to put her plate away and run the bath. "T-Theres no need really, we don't want to impose any more than this!" Lisanna says quickly but Mother ignores her. "She was like this for me too, just go with it." I state as a fact. "Hahaha! Go with the flow kids!" Father booms to add to what I said.

After the Strauss siblings finish their baths the girls come to my room while Elfman worriedly follows Blaine. "Elfy this is going to be the best sleepover of your life! We'll-" Is all I heard as Blaine took Elfman away. "I'll take the floor, you guys can have the bed." I say settling on the floor with a small blanket. "No way this is your room." Lisanna says frantically. "Its her choice Lis, let her do it." Mirajane says coldly getting in my bed. Lisanna drags the blanket off of me forcefully. "Get in the bed!" she demands cutely. I sigh and look at Mirajane who looks at me in return with a glare. "Ok." I stated simply. " _If it puts her at ease."_ She gives me a hand up and hops in the middle while I take the side and deliberately put a gap between us. " _Its too small, this is stupid."_ I think at the lousy idea of three in one bed. "This is stupid." I hear Mirajane voice my thoughts then huff to herself knowing she's stuck in the situation.

In the morning I found myself on the floor with a pain in my head. " _What on Earthland?"_ I think picking myself up off the floor. I look over and see the cause. Lisanna sprawled on my bed with no sign of Mirajane. "Ughhh." I hear a groan. " _Oh."_ I think moving to look at the scene better. I leave them to sleep to get dressed and brush my teeth in the bathroom. Outside my room I see Blaine and Elfman but Elfman is smiling happily and chatting with Blaine. Almost shocking but it seems Blaine got him out of his shell. I smile at the sight.

After I finished my teeth and asked Mother for some dark coloured clothes, I walk back to my room. I open my door and find two sleepy looking sisters, one on the bed, one on the floor, both rubbing their eyes. "Good morning." I say walking in. "Mornin'" They both grumble which makes me giggle. "You laughing at me?!" Mirajane say angrily. "Um no!" I say quickly and push the clothes in her arms. "Wha- Oh, um thanks." Mirajane thanks me which surprises me and then she looks at the floor she's sitting on but I take the thanks anyway since its probably rare. "No problem, Mirajane." I reply and she nods. I walk out of my room to go to the kitchen. _"I'm hungry."_ I think to myself walking down the stairs. Downstairs I see Blaine talking to Elfman about the dojo. "Oh man! You should come along, we can fight together! Toku can teach all kinds of martial arts, so lets go after breakfast!" Blaine exclaims excitedly. "It seems fun." Elfman responds. I sit at the table and wait for breakfast to be ready. After everyone arrives we tuck in.

"Mum! Me and Elfman are going to the dojo!" Blaine yells leaving. "Okay! Be safe!" Mother yells back from the kitchen. " _I'm deaf."_ I think in my head sarcastically. "Is this loud thing normal?" I hear Mirajane remark. "Yep." I say plainly and put our bowls in the kitchen. "What are you going to do today Noel?" Lisanna asks. "I think I'll go back to the forest. I found something fun in my magic the other day." I respond in detail. "Can I come?" Lisanna asks once again. "Of course, we can practice together." I say smiling. "I'm sticking with Lisanna so I'm coming too." Mirajane states. "Okay, then lets go" I reply back. " _This is going to be fun"_ I think happily to myself grabbing an umbrella.

I show the sisters the place I practised yesterday that now has a small scorch mark on the floor. " _Scorch"_ I shiver at the thought. "Well, this is where I practised yesterday. It's not impressive so if you want to leave then you can." I suggest awkwardly. Lisanna shakes her head, "I wanna see your magic, please." she says politely. I look up as I make the clouds form above me and the siblings do the same. "Um, you might want to use this." I hand the umbrella to Lisanna who puts it up and uses it to cover them both but struggling so Mirajane takes it. Looking back up, droplets fall from the sky after using a bit of my magic to enhance the clouds. The light rain twinkles in the sun. "Whoa, that's pretty." I hear Lisanna say. " _Its only rain..."_ I think lousily. Mirajane just looks bored. " _If your that bored then leave."_ I huff in my head but I immediately regret the thought. _"I don't want to be alone after all."_ I sigh. I pump some more magic into the clouds which drains me some more as heavy rain pours down on me. "Whoa! Hey! Isn't this a bit much?!" Mirajane exclaims finding it hard to hold the umbrella which makes me giggle. I take this opportunity to practice water magic. I cup my hands and imagine a small ball in my hands. The water seems to gather in a ball above my hands which surprises me a little. I turn around to show Lisanna and she claps. "That's so cool Noel! I didn't know you were a water mage!" she makes her voice higher than the noise the downpour is making. "I'm not a water mage. Why would you think that?" I ask while walking over to them. "Huh? Because your moving water." she looks at me weird as does Mirajane. "I'm a weather mage, I told you before. Didn't I?" I answer with a question. "No, you didn't." Mirajane says back but then smirks. "Bet I could crush you in a fight. Nothing beats my Takeover." She states rudely. "I bet I could beat you sometime." I reply huffing. "Oh really? Some rain won't help you." she just laughs at me. "Actually, once I learn how to control it properly, I think even you would be surprised." I answer back thinking on the events with the lightning yesterday. " _It seems to enhance me somehow, I'll talk to Clare tomorrow"_ I set the plan in my head. "I doubt it. I've beaten stronger." she snarls, I see the pain in her eyes before its replaced with a glare which shocks me. I remember that its still raining and push the clouds away from the town which leaves another beautiful clear sky. "Well, um. Maybe we should do some meditation. Since its a nice day." Lisanna suggests sensing the darkened atmosphere with a tug on her sisters arm. "Sure, whatever, lets do it." Mirajane says. "But on dry land and not some muddy mess." Mirajane suggests in favour of dry. I put my hand on her arm and she whips it back. "What are you doing?!" she says loudly in anger. "Oh. I -I can use my water magic to remove the water, since you wanted to be dry." I respond slightly worried she hates me completely. I can only gather small amounts of water so far but it can be useful. "Well don't." she snarls but drops her shoulders and Lisanna checks on her. I look to the ground in shame. " _Why did I go and do that? She's all ready… on edge."_ I think weighing the reasoning on my actions. All of a sudden Lisanna pops up in front of me. "I'd like to be dry please Noel." she says kindly. I nod and put my hand on her arm and sense the water on her person and drag it to my hand. Then I release the water from my hand to the floor so it drops with a splat. "Thanks!" she says smiling. I nod again. We walk to go find somewhere dryer to meditate.

Eventually we came across a small clearing that was dry enough to sit on the floor. We sat in different places and just meditated for a moment. I close my eyes and relax. I move what's left of my magic in and out of my body. The downpour used quite a bit so my reserves are a little ways off empty. " _At least I'm more efficient in the making of rain, and the water magic is useful."_ I think while meditating. _"But I want to learn wind magic more, in tribute to my sister and Zack."_ My thought made me lose concentration and my magic slipped a bit causing me to feel tired. " _Focus. Don't think… about anything."_ However my thoughts trail to the scar remaining on my stomach and the awful events in the past week. " _I'm such a mess."_ I barely contain a sob and a tear drips down my face but I instantly wipe it away so the others don't notice. I then got a grip and continued to meditate with the thoughts of improvement to encourage myself.

Later on as the sun began to set we decided it was pretty late and Mother would be angry if we don't get back quickly. "Last one to the bakery doesn't get any blanket tonight!" Lisanna shouted behind her as she ran away. Me and Mirajane glanced at each other starting a silent competition between us and we both sprinted off… however my body has always been clumsy and weak so I knew it was a lost cause. We chased Lisanna down the towns main road and eventually reached the bakery. Well, I was left in their dust but when _I_ reached the bakery I had scrapes and bruises and heavy breathing which made an equally out of breath Mirajane who only arrived a few moments ago herself laugh. "Your.. so pathetic… Noel." she continued to laugh. "You- Your no better!" I manage to get out. Lisanna seems to be inside chatting with Mother and dishing up dinner but Mirajane is still outside. " _She might have waited?"_ I think wishfully. "Lets go in. Your knees are bleeding and theres a scrape on your forehead." she snorts her laughter rudely. I hastily cover my forehead with my straight bangs to avoid further embarrassment. She just laughs again. I push past her and open the door to treat my scratches with something. "Noel! What happened?" Mother asks the moment she sees me and scurries off quickly to find something to help. She comes back just as quick with disinfectant and plasters. "This will sting." It did sting and I flinched. _Fire._ " _Why does it still haunt me?"_ I whimper. Mother looks up worriedly. "Baby." I hear Mirajane mutter from wherever. Mother then plasters up my knees and 'kisses them better'. "Is that it Noel?" she asks checking me for more injuries and at this moment blood trickles from my forehead. Mother lifts my bangs and frowns. "How can one person be so clumsy?" She sighs and sticks a square bandage on and I pout while Mirajane chuckles and Lisanna finishes putting the cutlery on the table. "Sorry." I mumble and Mother just smiles at me kindly. "Lets get ready for dinner, the boys should be back soon." She states and pulls me up off the chair and Mirajane and Lisanna patiently wait at the table for food so I go and join them at the table. As I sit down I hear a bang of the door and Blaine talking excitedly. "Dad! You should have seen Elfman! He's like a one man army! He pounded the training dummies face in so hard it left tears!" Blaine shouted his praise as Elfman blushed and all three walked into the kitchen. "So I hear Elfman is dishing out beatings." Mother says as they walk through. "Good to know there's one reliable man to keep away thieves." she said snootily. Elfman continues to shy away and quickly comes to sit by his sisters at the table. "What's happened Elf?" Mirajane asks. "I was just training." Elfman replies modestly. Blaine gets in Mirajane's face "No way! He was the coolest! He-" Blaine couldn't finish before he was head butted by Mirajane and now lays limply on the floor. Mother and Father both look him over in shock of the silence, say nothing and continue with what they were doing. I sigh. He suddenly pops up with full vigour. "He beat that training bag to a pulp!" Blaine finished but at a safe distance and went to pull out his chair next to Elfman. "Wanna go tomorrow too? Noel is coming as well." Blaine looks at me to help convince his new friend. I nod in response and look at Elfman who looks to his sisters searchingly. "You can go if you want Elf." Lisanna says. "It's not like I'm the one who's weak." Mirajane says afterwards. "Hey!" Lisanna pouts. "Then, I'd like to go with you, please." Elfman says politely. "Of course you can man!" Blaine wraps an arm around his shoulders in a brotherly way and Elfman just takes it with a smile. "Well, with your plans for tomorrow ready, lets eat my special lasagne!" Mother says happily with plates in her hands. She places them in front of us then goes to retrieve more so we can eat together.

The next morning.

I wake up on the floor again, I can feel a bruise forming on my head. "Again?" I mutter to myself and look up to find Mirajane staring down at me. "What is it?" I ask getting up. "Your plaster is peeling off." She says plainly and quickly moves to the door as I check my plaster on my forehead. Mirajane leaves the room. " _I must look so stupid."_ I think embarrassed by the event. I brush my hair to its usual straight appearance from the mess before. I look over to my door to where I put my blue scarf on it. " _Why did it have to be me?"_ I grimace at the thought of it happening to someone else. " _No one needs to go through this. It won't happen again, I promise."_ I think with conviction. I put on a thin green raincoat that Blaine lent me last night and walk out of my room leaving Lisanna to her sleep. I find Mirajane putting on her shoes to leave out the back door of the bakery instead of the front like all of us usually do. I stand behind her listening to her mutter incoherent mumbles to herself. She turns around suddenly. "Ah! Noel! Can you not scare me?!" She screeched. Then clears her throat. "Sorry." I mumble. "Jeez, your a ninja I swear. Look I'm just going out to train by myself for a while so don't look for me, okay?" She turns away back to her shoes. "Um, okay." I respond behind her. Her stature changes and she looks a little disappointed at my response. "But if your out to long then I will go out eventually." I fix and I see her slump her shoulders in a relaxed manner and hear her sigh. "Fine." she fails to seem angry. " _So she actually wants me to go find her?"_ I think about her actions. "See you later, Mirajane." I say turning to go back through the front door. "Right, see ya." I hear her mutter. I walk back through the kitchen grabbing a cereal bar from the lunch box that Mother had prepared for me. I walk with my lunch out the entrance to the shop onto the main town road. It's a little cloudy today but the white clouds aren't enough to block the sun so the neighbours gave me odd glances at me with Blaine's green coat on. I ignore it and continue to head to the dojo that the boys must have already left for. " _Blaine left me."_ I pout at the fact that I have to walk on my own.

As I approach the dojo I see something shocking. Elfman with an odd looking arm and Blaine shouting how cool it was. "I wish I could do that! Unfortunately I have no magic abilities to brag about but you guys are making me so jealous!" I hear him shout from here. "At least I can brag about my younger siblings having magic right?! So I do have bragging rights after all!" He states like he's proud of himself. Poor Elfman just stands there sinking from the stares that Blaine is attracting. " I s-supose." Elfman got out. I walk over to join the chat. "So this is Takeover magic?" I ask. "Yes. I have Beast Soul Takeover. This is my bear Takeover, its good for throwing stuff." Elfman explains. "Really?! Throw me! Throw me!" Blaine chants. "W-what?" Elfman asks bewildered by the request. "Throw me!" Blaine repeats grabbing his arm and putting himself at the paw. "Um but-" Elfman starts. "Come on Elf!" Blaine whines. Without another word Elfman picks up Blaine and throws him in any direction. We watch in silence as Blaine gets smaller and smaller. "Oh no! Blaine! I'm sorry!" Is all I heard from Elfman as he ran in the general direction of my brother. With a sigh I turn around and bang into the chest of some man. "Oh hey little Noel." I hear a familiar voice call to me. I look up. "Hello Toku. Is Clare in?" I greet. "Aha. Unfortunately I had her run a quick errand, you just missed her." Toku explains to me. "But hey! Don't be glum 'cause I can teach you a thing or two 'till she gets back." He says with a thumbs up. I look sceptical but throw caution to the wind. I nod in agreement. "Good. Come on in."

As soon as I got inside Toku threw a punch at me. "What are you doing?!" I exclaim in shock. "Just testing your reflexes. They're pretty good. You done this kind of thing before?" He asks. "I might have." I say cryptically and he just nods in something akin to understanding? "Okay so I want to teach you how to fight, your looking pretty flimsy." he mentions pointing to all of me. "That's a bit rude." I pout. "All right, so listen. You do this training and you can easily roll punches quickly if you can't use magic. It's an obvious thing to do as a mage." he states factually. I nod since it is true. "Follow my moves." Toku gets into a fighting stance and raises his fists ready to fight next to me so I can mimic his movement, I do so. "Space out your legs and bend your knees. You need to be prepared for anything. Manoeuvrability is key." I do so and balance my weight out. Toku throws a punch at the air very swiftly, life a blade. "Light jabs and feints to trick the opponent." He demonstrates a feint. I copy but its rigid. "We'll continue this till Clare is back and don't worry so much, your lightweight so you'll be using smaller jabs so I'll teach you that." He grins and continues to show me moves.

"I've brought it!" I hear Clare shout from my place on the floor. Toku worked my muscles to the bone in this 'training'. " _Torture, its torture. Blaine finds this fun? I'm burning."_ I think. Clare sighs. "Toku. You killed my _magic_ student. Does she look like a brawler to you?" Clare glares as she picks me up and piggy back rides me out of the dojo and to the courtyard leading to her and Toku's shed. Clare plops me on a chair outside the shed. "I'll grab some water." I nod. I look around and still see no sign of Elfman and Blaine. " _I hope they're both okay."_ I think worriedly despite knowing who they are. "Here." I hear Clare say passing me a glass of water. "Thank you." I respond. "Don't sweat it. But I have to ask, why'd you join Toku in his 'training'" Clare asks. "He offered a good argument." I answer. She just nods in agreement. "Well since your physically exhausted, we should probably practice here then." Clare thinks for a moment. "So how was your training?" She finally asked. "I can summon the clouds and make it rain heavily without too much of a second thought but," She interrupted before I could finish. "But..." Clare egged me on to finish as I was going to, I roll my eyes. She glares at me. "But I was struck by lightning and it made me feel weird, like too much energy was stored in me." I finish. "Interesting." Clare thinks with a hand to her chin. "Seems like your able to use electricity to your advantage as well." She states. "Wait. I thought a mage usually only had one magic." I contemplate and she looks at me like I'm super stupid. "Well obviously if you want to learn a magic you can but you'll need the capacity and expertise to use it so a mage would commonly use one to better themselves however for your Weather magic ability the control of key elements come with it. Like wind, lightning and water so if you master them then your Weather magic would increase in potential. Just like I thought from the beginning." She answers with a smug look like she's proud of herself for her long winded explanation. "Since you haven't drunk that yet show me your water manipulation. I hold my hand out and tip the glass upside down however instead of falling to the floor it pools into a floating ball above my hand. "Very good, very good." Clare nods in approval and slices her hand through the ball which keeps in its shape above my hand. "Good grip on it too. That's cool, good for you." She pats my head patronisingly. I float the ball to my face and take a gulp. "So what are we learning today?" I ask taking a few sips of the water ball, watching it decrease slowly in size. "Hmmm, well, to be honest there's actually not a lot to do except improving what your already doing." Clare says honestly. "I mean, you just need to develop a method that suits you. I'm no expert in your magic, all I know is how to set you on the right path." She finishes. "Oh. So you can't help at all?" I ask looking at her in shock at these events. "Yeah. You can use water magic, found out you can use lightning magic and can even use a bit of wind magic. Plus your already quite efficient in making a storm which _is_ quite a feat in just a few days." Clare says acknowledging my accomplishments. "Umm, I don't know I just feel a little useless. I can barely use wind magic and what can a storm even be useful for except being "gloomy"" I say standing and feeling awful. Clare winces at the word "gloomy", which makes sense, she's the one who called it gloomy after all. Clare sighs. "Magic is only as good as you make it, Noel. So cheer up, you have a lot of potential-" I interrupt her speaking. "I don't want to just have potential! I want to use it. To make me stronger. To protect… protect my family!" I emphasise my reason for being here. Clare glares at me scarily. I shiver. "Look, meditation and practice with the sweet cherry of experience on top is the _only_ way a mage can get better. Your efficiency has increased and it will continue to do so if you practice. Now run along and practice, I've helped with the little I can do so come back when you have a decent reason!" Clare shouts the last sentence at me and shoos me off.

I begrudgingly trek into the dojo still feeling the muscle aches from Toku's abuse. "Hey little sister! You already done?" Blaine asks when he sees me walk in. "No. I just need to practice a lot she says." I relay. "Yep. Sounds like Clare, giving bare minimum help but she is right so listen to her, okay Noel?" Toku says joining the conversation. I just give a small nod to acknowledge what he said. I sigh. _"What a fun_ _time I have ahead of me."_ I think with sarcasm. "Cheer up Noel! Lets practice your technique that Toku showed you!" Blaine grabs me and drags me deeper into the dojo while Elfman sheds pitiful looks my way and follows us. "Um, Blaine d-don't you think she's gone through enough today?" Elfman asks timidly. "She's going to be a warrior mage so I know she has a lot in her!" Blaine grins happily still dragging me to the middle to face torturous "training" technique, or so they call it. I think its an excuse to fight all the time.

After me hurriedly dodging punches for two hours with sheer luck and sustaining no damage Lisanna appears through the front doors breathing heavily with her hands on her knees. "Ha- Have you seen..." Lisanna wheezes. "Mira?" She asks. Elfman wraps an arm around me to keep me up from my own heavy breathing. " _Oxygen?! Do you exist?! The small five minute breaks were useless!"_ I think worried for my health. I'm carried over to lisanna as Blaine just walks and wipes sweat from his forehead. " _I need a bath ASAP."_ I think in disgust reminded by my state. "No. Was she headed here? Did she get lost?" Blaine asks. "I don't know. I woke up and no one was in the bedroom. Mama said she didn't know where Mira was but knew where you three where." Lisanna explains with much more ease while I'm still gasping like a fish out of water. Elfman lets me go and I rest my hands on my knees like Lisanna's previous stance. "I think… I know where she… is. I'll get her… in a moment." I say between breaths. Standing back up with a wipe of my chin, trying to redeem my previous manner. "I'll get her so you wait here with the boys. Okay?" I state. "Well, okay." Lisanna approves sadly. I walk slowly out the dojo still trying to calm my heart down. " _She must be in the forest from yesterday, it's only logical since she doesn't know the forest too well, like me."_ I head out the town since the dojo was close to the forest. As I bring my first step into the forest a feeling of dread and fear crawls up my spine, making me shiver. I gulp the lump that formed in my throat after my momentary pause. I took another few steps in the direction of whatever the atmospheres centre was. _"I hope Mirajane isn't in trouble."_ I think worriedly. The thought made something in me flip as I began to run in the direction of the threatning aura. " _I will not allow your siblings to suffer loss! What an idiot to come out here alone!"_ I think angrily at both her and my stupidity. Mine because I knew she was acting weird earlier and hers because she's stupid anyway. As I get closer I hear a large howl… or war cry. It's pretty deep in the forest now so monsters will lurk here. " _Everyone knows that."_ I think again. I get to a clearing and see a slightly battered Mirajane. "Miraj-" I interrupt myself as I notice the large creature she seems to be battling. I take a moment and step back in fear however I quickly correct my feelings with a new emotion of anger. "Mirajane! You _cannot_ be serious! Your battling a monster the size of a house! Lisanna is worried." I shout slowly getting closer to Mirajane so the monster doesn't pounce at me instantly. "She knows that I'll be fine so buzz off brat!" Mirajane snarls as she dodges a swing from the monsters arm. The speed of the swing outmatched her and swiped at her slightly. Leaving a small scratch wound across her stomach. "Look this is your fault. Your mother gave me these clothes!" Mirajane shouted at me. I run to stand by her side and summon forth rain to use to hinder the creature. "Ugh, don't interfere!" Mirajane just glares at me as a small storm brews and soaks us and the monster in water."It's called helping!" I shout baack. The monster attempts a swipe at both of us but its more sluggish from the heavy water its carrying in its fur coat. Mirajane manages to dodge however I'm still exhausted from my physical training not too long ago. I get hit and swiped into a nearby bush of thorns. "Noel!" I hear Mirajane shout and as she does so a heavy aura of doom surrounds the nearby area. I was engulfed in a fear however something told me " _Do not be afraid."_ I was slightly comforted by the feeling. That small reassurance I'm safe made me feel much better, especially since this is a pretty hopeless situation. I lay in the thorny bush as I hear a large thud. Intrigued by the noise I drag myself out. " _My head."_ I numbly think. My head feels quite fuzzy. I pull myself out of the bush and sit on my knees in a muddy puddle in heavy rain. I look up and see the monster on the ground. Crosses in its eyes to symbolise its defeat however I see another figure. A person or monster, the argument is debatable but I recognise who it is. The _person_ saunters towards me and looks upset. She crouches near me. "Aha, you- you got him. Mirajane." I say holding my hand up for her to pull me up. She doesn't take it and I lower my hand. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Are- are you not going to scream and run?" she answers with a question looking sternly down at me with a scowl but its obvious that she's hurt inside. "Well. You did save me, besides, I can't run any more, I'm… exhausted." I say offering my hand out again as a flash of lightning strikes down on the monster and it begins to smoke. My dizziness reaches it's peak but as I fall unconscious I feel a warm hand grab mine and tug on it slightly while I face plant the ground covered in loads of pathetic cuts from a bush. "Thanks, Noel."


	6. Chapter 6

Weather Changes

Chapter 6

My eyes flicker open and I take in my surroundings. " _I'm at home?"_ I think to myself groggily. "How are you feeling Noel?" I hear a familiar voice ask. I turn my head to the side and notice Lisanna sitting there with a bowl of water. "Where's Mirajane?" I ask but as I tried to get up a wave of dizziness hits me and I fall backwards. "Whoa! Be careful, you have a bit of a fever! And she's downstairs with the boys." Lisanna says placing a small wet and folded hand towel on my forehead. "Oh. That's good." I murmur and Lisanna continues to nurse me. "It was such a shock when Mira busted open the door carrying you though, covered in cuts and bruises. It was scary." Lisanna whimpered. I reached my hand over to take hers. "I fell over if I remember correctly so its nothing to bad." I reassured her. "Yeah, the idiot threw herself into a thorn bush." We turn to look at Mirajane standing in the doorway just glaring at me. "Lisanna you can go get breakfast. I'll take over." Mirajane said patting her sisters shoulder as she sat in her seat and watched as she left. "Well, um, come get me if you need help?" Lisanna said but it sounded like a timid question. Mirajane just nodded in response. She left, now an awkward silence loomed over me and Mirajane. "Your so stupid, a blonde bimbo." She said to me looking down at the bowl in her hands. "That's a little mean." I pouted. She just chuckled at me. "The truth hurts." She said but seemed like she wanted to say something else. "What is it?" I ask tiredly becoming self aware of my fever. "I… I don't know." She responded with extremely uncharacteristic uncertainty. "Oh." Is all I say to that. I just watch her sort her thoughts looking down. We just sit in heavy silence. I decide I should speak up. "At least it's not raining right?" I ask attempting to relieve this silence. "Are you dumb? Out of all the things to say you say _that._ " She says with a glare my way. "What do you want me to say?" I ask slightly annoyed. " _This Goth seriously brings out the bad in me."_ I think worried for my behaviour. "I don't know! Maybe I just… I don't know." She says and I think back to her inhuman form walking over to help me. "I'm not scared of you if that's what your worried about." I say taking touching her arm trying to soothe her and assure her that its okay. "Ugh your so stupid! A normal person would be shaking in there boots at such a beast like me!" She stands up quickly in anger and the bowl of water spills over onto me. "Oh no." She mutters under her breath. " _What the heck is up with her? She's acting so jumpy."_ I think worriedly. "Mirajane are you okay?" I ask in concern. "Am _I_ okay?! Look at you!" She almost shouts and goes to get a new cover for the bed. "Your seriously an idiot." She says changing the covers and I shiver from the momentary cold but it quickly goes from the replacement of new sheets. She carefully tucks me in. "Your acting creepy." I say with a shudder. "Oh shut up. I'm not the bimbo who gets a cold from her own magic." She says with a frown and arms crossed in frustration. "You spilt water on me. I think you made it worse." I say with a fake heavy cough and she glances at me. "Whatever." Is her response to a tragically sick person. I huff at her but end up breaking into a real cough. "Here. I brought it from downstairs." She says uncapping some medicine and getting a spoon out of her pocket. She pours some liquid carefully onto the spoon and aims it at me. I look at her through my flushed haze of coughing. "Hehe. What a caring older sister." I murmur and take what's on the spoon. "I was offering the spoon not going to feed you!" She exclaims with mild shock. "I'm not the only one acting weird." She says pouring another spoon. "I'm sick." I blame my want to be friendly on my illness. She just feeds me another spoon of medicine. Mirajane just sits back down and looks at the mess of water on the floor. She huffs and picks up the bowl. "Your so stupid." She reminds me and I roll my eyes and regret it. " _I rolled them too hard. Ouch."_ I think. Mirajane turns to look out the window but I notice her gripping the wooden chair with force. "Are you sure you feel okay?" I ask quietly. "Yeah. I enjoy watching people get flung by a monster." She says sarcastically not looking at me. "Your not a monster." I answer back. "I wasn't referring to me you idiot!" She shoots another insult at me. "I know, I just thought you needed to hear that." I add with a pat of the blanket to smooth it out. Mirajane mistook the action for me trying to get her to sit there. She sat where I patted and reached to take the towel off my head. "Thanks." She mutters quietly. "Don't expect me to be nice all the time!" She quickly adds. "I wouldn't have it any other way." I respond. The sudden feeling of drowsiness came over me. I try to keep my eyes open but its hard. "I'm going to sleep a little bit so I won't be much company." I warn her. She nods. "You might want to go downstairs." I suggest. She just nods again. " _Okay. I'm slightly creeped."_ I think as I begin to doze off.

 **Two weeks of training later.**

Its been two full weeks since I and the Strauss siblings got here. I make my way to the kitchen with a yawn and pour myself some cereals into a bowl. Mother and Father went to deliver some bread to some homeless and should be back later. "Mornin'" I turn to see a groggy Lisanna. I grab another bowl for her and the routine of the waking order took place as I sat to eat my cereals. Elfman and Blaine next then Mirajane comes down ten minutes later than everyone else. I sit quietly waiting for everyone to finish there food. "Hey Elfman! Wanna go to the dojo again today? I want to fight again!" Blaine shouts excitedly. Elfman looks sad and just shakes his head. "Huh? What's wrong man?" Blaine asks as his smile is replaced with a frown. I notice that Lisanna also looks a bit glum herself, and so does Mirajane. " _What's going on?"_ I think with a frown. "Are you guys okay?" I ask with concern. Only Mirajane looks at me in the eyes. "We are leaving later." She states with confident voice. I feel a heat behind my eyes but I understand. "What?" Blaine mutters in his shock. Elfman flinches. Blaine notices and corrects himself. "Well, I suppose you need to huh?" Blaine amended with a quiet uncharacteristic voice. "Guess I'll spar with Noel a lot more then!" He says trying to cheer everyone up but I just pale. Elfman actually laughs at that which causes his sisters to smile. "I'd like to politely decline." I say holding my hand up. "Rejected." He replies with a grin. " _Guess I'll be leaving this world."_ I think with a dark awkward chuckle. "So… when are you going to leave?" I ask getting us back on topic. "In an hour or two. We have a place in mind where we want to go to." Lisanna responds to my question. "Oh." I quietly say. " _They're leaving so quickly? Mother and Father might not see them."_ I think. "At least you have a destination. I'll be rooting for you." I say with a small smile and some relief that they won't be just wandering around. "What should we all do together then?" Blaine asks. We all look at him questioningly. "You know. Something we can all do as a farewell." He states with a grin at his clever idea. "I found a cool place with Elfman last week! Its on the other side of town in the forest but its super pretty!" Lisanna exclaims passing her bowl for me to put on the counter behind me. "That sounds fun! We can get ice cream on the way there too!" Blaine shouts matching her excitement. I look to Mirajane who just sat there with her arms crossed in silence and then to Elfman who looked a bit happier than she did. "Then lets go. No time waste!" I say standing up and gathering the bowls. Everyone got up and headed to the front door. I noticed Mirajane put her backpack on before she stepped out. I follow them outside and lock the front door then pocket the key. "Lead the way." I usher Lisanna to show us and she merrily took a steady pace in the lead.

A few paces onward we reached the middle of town and got some ice cream with our pocket money. We didn't stay to eat it and just hurried on with our ice cream. "I love ice cream!" Lisanna exclaimed walking backwards. "You'll fall." I warn her. "She's not an idiot like you, Noel." Mirajane says quite rudely and I frown at her, she must have sensed it and glared back at me.

We reach the edge of the forest and walk in. I feel an odd sensation which forms goose bumps on my skin but I brush it off as the wind. "How far is it Lis?" Mirajane asks. "Not too far. Just a few more minutes." She says finishing her cone with a crunch. We already finished ours and I looked on in jealousy that she had that bit left and with a few more paces and the sound of running water we got to our destination. A beautiful river surrounded by an array of colourful flowers. "Wow." I breathed in awe. "This is awesome!" Blaine shouted and scared off some birds. "… beautiful." I correct him. "I didn't think there would be a place like this in this thieving town." Mirajane states looking around. I sigh because she still holds it against the town that she got robbed on day one. "I'm tellin' you. Boss won't be happy." We hear a strange voice say. "Shut your filthy mouth." Another guy said. The wind brushed past me with slight force like it was warning me to get out. All five of us take cover behind some trees and bushes quietly. "With the Black Wasp gone we have to take care of this stupid job." A tough sounding guy noted. We watched as eight men strolled past. " _The Black Wasp? Again?! No no no! They have accomplices?!"_ I think with fear. " _Job? This is just a job?!"_ I shake in anger and Lisanna behind me notices in worry and squeezes my shoulder, a quiet way of asking what's wrong. Suddenly a strong wisp of clouds churn from where I crouched and the wind began to pick up. I stood and slowly began to follow them in silence. The other four in the bushes just looked on in shock and stood up as well. "Where's this crap weather comin' from?" The crooks then notice me and take a stance. "Look at this stupid brat." One of them said with a making the others laugh. I raise my hand and hail shoots from the sky down solely onto the men. "Ow! Ouch!" They muttered as the small pellets hurt their skin. "Ugh this cow is a mage!" A skinny man warns everyone and they ready spells against a little girl. "Tell me, tell me about this _job_." I glare at them. "Um Noel. I think we should go." Lisanna whispers trying to move me but I won't budge. Mirajane stands next to me and readies her own magic. "What do you want from these guys? They're just bandits." She observes. "No. They know why." I say cryptically as a spell comes swirling at us. Elfman absorbs the impact and acts as a shield. "No one attacks my sisters." he states bravely. "That was cool Elfman!" Blaine states jumping into the fray as well. Suddenly I don't feel so alone with my friends and family ready to attack my enemies. I frown and aim my ire at the leader looking person who comes at us with three other men with swords as the other four readied spells to throw at us. I quickly evaded the swings the leader launched at me while Elfman and Blaine made quick work of two other men and Mirajane kicked the other away into a tree and ran at the other men in a demon like form and with a few speedy strikes they met their end while I still dodged and struggled, I sneak in a grab of his swinging arm but he lifts me easily. I use my wind magic to sweep him off his feet and utilise his rope belt to bind his arms as Elfman and Blaine held him down. "W-why are you doing that to him?" Lisanna says after coming out from her hiding place. "I want answers." I reply with a glare at the man I'm sat on. "Come on kid. I habve no idea what you want to know." He looks at Mirajane nervously. "The Black Wasp. The _job_ you had to take care of. All of it." I clarify with a murderous aura that I wasn't aware I was capable of. _"These men helped them kill my family_ _,_ _I will get answers!"_ A voice in my head bellows in my haze of anger."I don- AHHH! Stop please I'll tell ya!" the man shouts in pain as I bend a finger the wrong way, not quite broken but as I set out to break it Lisanna jerks me out of my haze. I look at her and notice her scared expression. I ignore it but stop hurting him. "Tell me." I remind him darkly. "T-there's a band of dark guilds who are workin' to take over Fiore! I'm just followin' orders kid!" He states in fear of pain and the glare of Mirajane. "What orders?" Mirajane asks for me. I listen intently. "We gotta burn down a few small towns to get the higher ups attention so we can take over the big guilds after the send out them help quests." He explains in large amounts of detail. I get off him and kick him in the head so he knocks out like the others. "Um. A bit brutal lil' sis." Blaine says with a frown. "At least we managed to stop a massacre." I say sitting by the river. "It really is a nice spot Lisanna." I tell her with a sad smile. "Bimbo. Are you not gonna tell us what the hell that was?" Mirajane states with impatience. "Its… to do with before I came here to learn magic." I say sadly watching the river flow. "A dark guild called Black Wasp overrun our town and killed a lot of people. The people I called my family." I told them with a clenched jaw. "A man. The guild master took it upon himself to personally torment me. He even placed a mark I can never remove… just to remind me that he'll always be behind me." I shiver in my place. The clouds still overhead blocked the sun and made a dark atmosphere. "Scorch." I hissed the man's name. Blaine put a hand on my shoulder. "Noel. It's okay. You stopped them this time. We understand now, okay?" Blaine says soothingly and sits down on the riverbank as well followed by Elfman and his sisters. The clouds slowly dissipated as I cheered up a bit. The sun warmed us and brightened the scene like it never happened. We stayed sat for a few minutes until Mirajane turned to look at the men. "Well, I definitely won't forget this farewell soon." She joked. "We should turn them in." I suggest looking at them as well. "Yeah." Blaine said standing up to grab the big baby leader. "We'll have to drag them!" Blaine exclaims with a grin and piles two more on the leader and began to drag them. Elfman hoisted two on his shoulders while Mira carried two as well and me and Lisanna grabbed a leg each of the last one. We began this awkward body carrying towards the town.

We brought the bodies to the authorities who looked quite shocked. We didn't bother to try and explain what happened and mentioned they were bandits Toku took out for us so they called him in for questioning and said we could leave. "Poor Toku." Lisanna says in concern. "He'll be fine! He's a man!" Blaine exclaimed with a flex of his own muscles and Elfman just nodded in response. "Come on, Lis, Elf. We need to get off if we want to sleep in a bed tonight." Mirajane said while coldly facing away. Lisanna whimpered at the turn of events but she knew they had to, they had a goal to get to after all. Blaine quickly hugged Elfman brotherly like and Elfman returned it. "See you around lil' bro." Blaine said with a pat and almost teary eyes. Lisanna squeezed me tightly which shocked me quite a bit. "I hope you feel better Noel. Your like a big sister to me." She says which makes me smile and I pat her back. Both siblings go to Mirajane after a few seconds of goodbye. "See you later, Mirajane." I say to her back. "See you." She just says and walks off with her sibling. " _What a wierdo. Trying to act cool."_ I think to myself watching them retreat down a path by the police station. Me and Blaine decide to head home and see if Mother and Father are back yet.

We open the doors to the bakery which were unlocked so we assumed Mother and Father were home. "Oh! There you are Noel!" Mother says running at me from the kitchen and hugging me tightly. "I was sooo worried!" She exclaims with tears in her eyes. "What about me?!" Blaine exclaims. Mother just looks at him and checks him over. "Your fine." She states plainly and returns to cuddling me in worry, Blaine frowns and moves to go grab food. "I'm fine." Blaine mimics. "Did you have a good day?" She asks me. "We bumped into a few bandits earlier but we had Toku with us." A partial lie but mostly true. "Really I'll have to thank him later." She says. "Um. I don't think the other three are coming back though mother." I say looking at the floor. "I know." She says softly patting my head. "Mirajane gave me a note this morning." she showed me a small piece of paper. "Oh." Was all I could say in response. She dragged me to the kitchen. "Lets make some lunch together!" She exclaims with a motherly smile and her husband nodded towards us and prepared the chopping boards for the bread he grabbed from the bread bin. "Could you please get the condiments ready Noel?" She asks and I nod and go get them. Suddenly a wave of dizziness hits me and I fall to the floor with a clatter of sauces around me. Mother rushes over. "Noel?! Are you okay? What wrong?!" She frantically asks as Blaine and Father come to check on me. I then realise that I wasn't dizzy for no reason and clutch my stomach where that mark lays upon my skin. It began to burn so much and made me weep out loud and press firmly into the pain in hopes of it going. I curl into myself on the floor. "Noel! Honey, go get the doctor!" Mother orders quickly and Father nods while Blaine stands and looks to find some pain killers or something. I gasp for air in the sheer amount of random pain searing in my abdomen. Mother doesn't know how to soothe the pain and continues to rub my back. "M-y stoma-" Is all I was able to breathe out. "Your stomach? Let me see." Mother carefully turns me onto my side to try and get a look at me, I remove my hands to see if she can tell what's wrong. She quickly and carefully rolls up my shirt and notices the scar. I look down to see what is hurting me. My eyes widen as I see the scar flaring up a purple colour and making the scar weep a red colour. " _W-why on Earthland is t-this happening?"_ My brain manages to think through the pain. Mother goes to get a towel and some water. "One second Noel." She says with tears threatening to spill over the rims of her kind eyes. "This might help." She soaks up some water with the towel and dabs my stomach with it, a hissing noise accompanied with steam coming off me. The pain subsides and I can finally breathe once again. "M-mother. Thank yo-" I'm stopped mid sentence as the previous pain began to affect me somewhere else. My heart. I clutch my chest tightly as I began to sweat from the amount of pain. "Noel? Are you okay?!" she began to frantically refresh the towel with another bout of water. "J-just perfect. Don't worry abou-t it. My stomach hurts a lot i-is all." I lie through the pain and clenched teeth. Tears continue to flow from my eyes as I pretend the pain is from my stomach. " _It's that mark. What is it doing to me?!"_ I think in fear as a doctor is ushered/carried through the doors of the bakery. "I have a doctor!" Father exclaims loudly holding an old woman with pink hair. "Human! Put me down this instant!" The lady bellowed and she was roughly put down near me in the kitchen. "How rude." She muttered with a glare and noticed my on the floor. She knelt down and looked over the bleeding and burning scar. She proceeded to push mother roughly out of the way. Mother glared at her but it was quickly replaced with concern. " _What a kind woman."_ I think to myself in the haze of pain. "This mark." I hear the lady mutter to herself and looked at her. "It's a curse. An ancient one. Where on Earthland did you get this." She asked. "A-a" I was unable to speak so Blaine spoke up for me. "A man named Scorch. He gave it to her." He said kneeling down holding my hand but the lady swatted him away. "Don't touch her." She glared and he looked shocked. "This Scorch must have gotten his hands on a seal of binding." She said but didn't elaborate further. "Do any of you have magical abilities?" she asked looking around the room. No one but me had them. The woman sighed. "I'll be taking this girl then. You. Man. Help me carry her home." She points at father who frowns at her. "What do you mean you'll take her? You will not take my daughter!" Mother exclaims moving to protect me. "None of you have magic. She needs to be surrounded by magic or that mark will kill her quicker. I'll be taking her." She explains heartlessly which makes mother's tears almost spill as her husband looks to her for something. She looks at me as I falsely clutch my stomach in pain, I manage a small pained smile for her. She nods and Father picks me up and follows the woman out of the door. I look back and see mother hunched over a counter and Blaine trying to soothe her. I begin to feel a swell of sadness and hold my chest instead of my stomach. We receive odd looks from people on the streets and I notice that the woman was carrying a shopping bag. " _I'm sorry mother."_ was all I could think as the aching pain in my chest continued but it was somehow dulled as we got deeper into some forest. "It's a long walk. So be prepared." She stated heartlessly as she continues to saunter with wide strides. I looked up to see Father looking incredibly sad. He looked down. "The doctors were out and I went and found her in a store." He said glumly and oddly quiet. How he knew this old woman was a doctor was beyond me but a sudden thump made me groan. Father looked down in concern. "Is this the way to your facilities?" He questioned loudly. "Yes. If we keep going-" The woman was unable to finish as father slung us both over a shoulder preferring speed over comfort and sprinted in the right direction. "You brutish human! Put me down!" The woman's cries were ignored as he sped through the forest. The force of the running combined with my pain and fear sent me spiralling into a deep painless sleep.

My eyes open. I see nothing. Its just black. I get up and look down. I notice that I'm not standing on a floor but beneath me was purple fire. "What the heck?!" I cry out as the flames grew out, climbing up towards me. The fire all gathered before me and stopped. I stepped back at the heat. The fire took on a humanoid form and just watched me, I think its watching me at least. My feeling of fear dissipates as I notice that its not coming closer but I feel a burning on my abdomen and look down. I see the mark, glowing brightly, mocking me for my weakness, in my sudden bout of shock I stumble back onto the floor and the fire monster reaches out and touches the flaming marking. I look at it wide eyed in terror. " _I don't want to die."_ I think rather pathetically. The monster seems to sense my fear and _grins_ at me just like Scorch did. "I'LL ALWAYS BE HERE." It said in a wispy haunting voice and the monster crawled into the flame on my stomach. The flame on my body just calmed down and in its place the scar burned a hot red but in that moment I felt a seeping feeling making its way up and the heat settled in my heart. "AS YOUR FEAR." The thing said in my mind.

My hands search quickly for the pain. "Hello human." I look around and notice the light and the house I was in. I didn't see father around so I got up. "H-hello." I said timidly. The woman huffed at me and got up to do something. I noticed that I was in her house and just stayed awkwardly on the bed. "Um, thank you." I say as I saw the bandages wrapped around me. She didn't even spare me a glance. I went to get up off the bed but fall backwards. "You've been asleep for two days, your body needs time." She explained coming over with an odd liquid. I take it when she shoves it at me. "Drink." She commands and I do so. I almost spit it out at the odd texture but I swallow it with a weird choking noise. " _Is this rubber?!"_ My mind shrieks in shock. Despite the unfamiliarity of this place I feel oddly welcomed. "It's coffee you ungrateful human." She looked mad. _"Coffee? What did she do?!"_ I think. "Yes. Thank you." I feel rude not to finish it so I gulped it all down in a few large gulps. She huffed loudly at the display. "Barbaric." She muttered with a frown. "What happened?" I ask not really knowing if she would reply decently. "Like I said a curse. A curse from Zeref. It makes nightmares inflict pain upon mages. Mages magic is able to give physical form to the object of fear and inflict pain upon the victim. People without magic just suffer from an eternal binging to the person who inflicted the mark." she explains quite well actually. "C-can it not be countered?" I ask in fear of what will happen to me. "Yes but only temporarily. Magic can actually subside the curse." she said calmly. "But you just said that magi-" I was relieved but she interrupted me. "Yes. But it can only manifest with a small amount of magic, to get you in your weak moments. So I brought you here, a forest infested with etherano." She loudly exclaimed in frustration at my confusion. "Oh. Thank you." I say earnestly then look down to twiddle my fingers. A moment of quiet passes as the woman sighs. "Porlyusica." She huffed out her name quickly. "Oh. Oh! I'm Noel." I respond perked up by her choice to strike conversation… but that's where it ended and I went back to twiddling with my thumbs. _"Wait. Two days?! Oh my gosh."_ I look aghast realising what she said a few moments ago. "When can I go back?" I ask timidly. "Not yet. A few months." Porlyusica says almost nonchalantly. "Wha?!" I stutter. She looks disgusted at me and mutters something about barbaric humans again. "I'll be gone for a while. I'll be back later. Do not leave." She glares at me as she grabs her red cloak and exits through the door. Still in shock I sit there. My hand trails to hover over the bandages. " _Not yet. I wonder if mother is all right now."_ I sigh and lean back onto the bed. I turn my head and notice a picture of a lot of people and a girl with pink hair. _"_ _This must be Porlyusica, she looks moody on here too."_ I think to myself without touching the picture, that would be rude. I stare up at the ceiling. I can't help but think of all the events leading up to this moment. I can't help but feel that I keep taking advantage of all the kind people's hospitality all the time. I raise my hand and watch as I use the wind to entertain me, lowering my hand I watch as it swirls speedily in a circle. Eventually I fell asleep at the boredom of being alone.

I awake to the sound of people talking. I sit up and rub my eyes. "Welcome home, Porlyusica." I say groggily. As I come to I notice a small man looking at me fiercely, then he grins a happy grin. "Hello child." he says to me. "H-hello." I respond awkwardly. He takes my hand and his grin starts to look strained. "I'll get right on it then." he says and hops to the door and leaves. Porlyusica just looks and nods as he goes. "I brought some food for you." She hands me a pack of nuts. "T-thank you." I take the food. " _Nuts?"_ I think to myself as I open it and take some. I offer some to Porlyusica and she just ignores me. I continue to sit and eat, the loudness of the nuts echoing in the awkward silence. Porlyusica's frame grows agitated as I continue to eat loudly, I put the nuts down in favour of not annoying her. "What are you doing?" I ask. "Nothing that concerns you." She snaps, I can imagine the scowl on her face and wince at her tone while she carries on looking through a book at her desk. _"This is so awkward. What do I say in this situation?!"_ I think worriedly. "Thank you for helping me, Porlyusica." I manage to blurt out. She grunted in response. "Do you need me to do anything for you?" I ask timidly as she glances coldly over her shoulder, she sighs in annoyance. "Go get me some green mushrooms from the forest." she says looking back at her desk. I get up carefully so I don't disturb my wound. "In my garden to the left." She clarifies as I get to the door. _"So she didn't give me a hard task. She's kind after all."_ I think with a small smile and exit through the door. I close it behind me and breathe in the fresh forest air. Walking around the tree house to the left I come across a small herb garden and quickly spot the green mushrooms glowing in the sun. Not knowing which part of the mushroom she wanted I carefully dug up the whole thing. " _Mushrooms look so creepy. I hate mushrooms."_ I think grimly as I pull up some more and carry three back inside, I don't want to deplete her collection. I take a step inside and close the door. I hold them and wait for further instructions. "Just put the there." She points for me and I place them at the edge of the desk and take a peek at what she's doing. _"It looks like she's reading up on some cream?"_ I think in confusion and go to sit back on the bed. I trace the lines on the wooden floor. Porlyusica turns and looks at me. "Come with me." She orders grabbing her red cloak again. " _My scarf!_ _I had it when I was in the kitchen but-"_ Porlyusica watched as I held my bare neck and looked around frantically for my blue scarf. "Here." I'm blinded by something soft and pull it off my head to see that it was my scarf. Happiness and relief wells in my heart as Porlyusica orders me "Hurry." She states in a single command and I hurry out the door after her wrapping my scarf around me.

We walk through the forest and I could feel my body get lighter the further in we went. "You should feel good now, that binding seal wont have effect here." She says taking a seat on a log and pulls out a book to read. "Do whatever you want." She states seemingly without a care for my well being. I pout but sit cross legged with my back to her and begin to meditate to increase my magic capacity. " _If having small amounts of magic hurts me then I need to make sure I use it moderately."_ I think logically. I listen to the sound of the wind and how I can feel the earth around me despite having my eyes closed, the warmth of the sun beaming through the trees heating my skin and the sound of birds calling. Last week I decided that I like to meditate to feel the earth and movement around me, its soothing. Every time I hear the pages of Porlyusica's book turn I feel strangely at ease knowing that I'm not alone after all that's happened. Suddenly I begin to feel a strain on my magic and a bead of sweat forms on my brow but I feel a twinge in my heart and lose concentration, my eyes shoot open and I notice a stare on my back. I turn around and see Porlyusica frowning at me. "Let's go deeper then." She closes her book and stands. "Follow." She says as I get up to follow her into twists of bigger and taller trees, I feel my magic container fill quicker and quicker as we delve deeper into the forest. The forest grows darker from the canopy not letting sunlight seep through and an ominous green glow comes from above while vines trickle up trees to the top. "Practice here. It should be easier." She states with a light sweat noticeable on her face as she dabs it away with a sleeve. "Are you okay?" I ask with concern for her old body. "Yes, you troublesome human. Now hurry up and get to work." She says angrily and takes a seat then props open her book. I take a seat on a large tree root as well. " _She's doing this for me?"_ I ask myself and close my eyes to renew my meditation. This time I don't feel as strong a pull from my magic container since the large quantities of etherano fill it quicker than before. I'm able to meditate for longer and feel a lot more productive in the process although personally _"I'm not sure how not putting strain on my container will help make it bigger._ " As if Porlyusica could read minds she answers my inward question. "The vast amounts of etherano quickly enter your magic container and stretches it without restraint, it's one reason why most feel a huge pressure swell within and struggle from the sheer amount of it." She explains as if its obvious then snaps her book shut. "It's dark. We're leaving." She stands and walks back to her house as I scurry to catch up while reflecting on what she has told me. "You say most mages. What do you mean?" I ask quietly. She sighs so hard its like a groan. "Since you have that binding seal I suppose your a more brutish mage." Porlyusica doesn't really explain and just mocks me then continues her journey home in silence.

The moment we step into the house I feel sleepy and that bed looks oh so comfy. I make my way over and sit on the bed and watch porlyusica for a moment and she passes another drink to me. I sleepily mumble my thanks and take a sip. _"Its disgusting again."_ I think groggily but drink more anyway. Porlyusica walks off and closes a door behind her. Assuming she's gone to bed I slide further onto the bed I'm currently occupying. It seems that there is something in this drink, I can feel my body fall back onto the bed in a numb haze as I fight my eyelids in a battle to remain awake, I lose, darkness floods my mind as I watch a purple flame flicker behind my eyelids.

"HELLO AGAIN, NOEL." My eyes snap open and I bolt from my place to an upright position. I stare wide eyed at the purple flame monster before me and it grin back while holding up a pack of playing cards. "LETS PLAY?" It asks but I feel fear grab my heart and squeeze it. The flame pulses a brighter purple along with my heart. "NO?" For some reason it seems serious about playing cards. I weakly nod, not trusting my voice to show any semblance of bravery. I sit down in front of it and it passes out some cards. "KNOW HOW TO PLAY?" It asks and I shake my head. "ANYTHING?" It asks again and I nod. "Snap." I weakly say. It grunts and reshuffles the cards. "WE'LL HAVE TO PLAY THAT THEN BUT GO LEARN SOME MORE GAMES WHEN YOUR AWAKE." It tells me. "W-what do you mean? Can't you just go away?" I ask quietly taking the cards it gave me sceptically. It grins wider and moves closer to me. "DON'T BE SILLY, NOEL. I'M HERE FOR AS LONG AS FOREVER." It states and sits back to place cards in the middle. We continue to play. "SNAP!" It bellows and hurriedly takes the cards into its pile, I pout at the obvious display of mockery. "CHEER UP- ACTUALLY DON'T." It makes a rude remark and chuckles darkly and continues to grin. I watch it place another card in the middle and I do the same. "Why are you here?" I ask timidly again and can feel tears brimming my eyes. "Your ruining my life." I whisper. "THINK OF ME AS YOUR DARK GUARDIAN A- DEMON. I'M FOLLOWING YOU TO LEAVE YOU IN A QUAKE OF MISERY." It chuckles when it finishes its sentence and I can feel my heart pulse every time it speaks. "Snap!" I say quickly and take the small pile. It stares at me coldly for a moment. "You seem a bit friendly f-for a demon." I can feel its ire grow as I mention that it seemed friendly. "I'M STUCK WITH YOU, I MAY AS WELL GET USED TO IT. I WON'T BE GOTTEN RID OF EASILY EITHER. I'LL BE HERE FOREVER AND I'LL BE IN YOUR DARKNESS, WAITING." It says placing a card in between us. "W-waiting?" I ask but it doesn't reply. Instead I see a flash of white obscure my vision. "SEE YOU LATER, NOEL." is all I hear as I see white take over me completely.

I open my eyes yet again and see the old man again but super close up in my face. "Welcome back, child." he says with a kind grin. "You've been asleep for a while, we were getting worried." he says sitting cross legged at the end of the bed so I can sit up. "How long?" I ask. "Three days. Sixteen hours." Porlyusica answers. "Oh. I'm getting used to this long sleep thing." I say groggily and struggle to move my lazy limbs. The small old man chuckles. I feel something in my hand and look to see it. _A card. The ace of spades._ A strangled sound escapes my throat and I throw the card to the floor. I feel my heart pulse at the sight of it and move my hand to grip my chest. The old man hops off the bed with a scowl and looks at the card, when he sees it he seems to stand still. Porlyusica saunters over and plucks the card from the small old man's hands to give the card a hard glare, she then passes it back over to me. "Look after it, it seems like that demon in you has his own will. Be sure not to let it go." She states cryptically. I look back down to the old man who holds out a wooden box. He opens it and inside it is a necklace. A necklace with an odd symbol on it. "This is from the magic council, especially developed to help you with your demon issue." The old man looks up from the necklace with a grin. "Thank you for your help." I say quietly and take the necklace. I remove my scarf to put the necklace on, instantly I feel a burden be released from my heart, like it gained enough energy to beat normally again. The feeling made me feel giddy with a need to shout something. Instead of going crazy I decide a smile is good enough to express my relief to the two who helped me. The old man gave me a thumbs up and a grin while Porlyusica turned around with a grunt. "Make sure you don't take it off." She stomps to a door and closes it. "Don't mind her, she's a little lonely out here." The old man says like he's revealed something top secret. "You might not remember me but I was here a few days ago, I'm Makarov but you can call me Gramps." he says with a kind smile. "um. Hello… Gramps, I'm Noel." his grin widens at his self given nickname and he nods vigorously. "You'd fit in quite well with my brats." he says good naturedly with a chuckle. "Your brats?" I ask. "They're quite the trouble makers but they're good kids. It's called Fairy Tail." He says proudly. My eyes widen at the mention of that guild but I quickly reign in my feelings. "I- I'm sorry. I don't think I'm good enough for the guild. Maybe in the future?" I suggest timidly unsure of his reply. He looks at me and has a thinking expression which is replaced with a smile. "Your welcome any time, Noel." He hops to the door. "Look after that present!" He walks out the house as Porlyusica walks back in with a sigh. She looks at me with a stony expression. "You can leave later, we'll set off at lunch." She goes to pick up a bag and pulls out another bag of nuts to throw at me, I catch them clumsily and take some to eat. _"They're surprisingly filling."_ I think marvelling at the nuts. "So I can go back home?" I ask when the thought enters my mind. "Yes, later after I check up on you in the next few hours then you can scurry off." She says coldly and I pout at her lack of care for my well being once again. "Meanie." I mumble under my breath which makes her glance sharply at me. I shyly offer a nut to her in a silent ask for forgiveness. She actually takes one which surprises me, she finishes it with an angry look. "Don't touch anything." She orders and slams the mysterious room's door. "Okay." I mutter quietly from my seat on the bed. I decide to take this opportunity to meditate. I make my magic flow swiftly from my container and feel the things around me, I notice the thick etherano centred in the tree house's walls. Its life force. I then take note of the fact no dark feeling is emanating inside me, like the monster thing has left my heart but I know it hasn't, it's just been weakened. With my being able to meditate without being near a load of etherano in only a few days unconscious I feel excited to be able to go back home. " _I left mother in a bad state of mind, I hope she's okay."_ I worry in my head. " _Blaine has probably been practising a lot, he is most likely super lonely right now."_ I continue to think about my brother figure. " _Father must have got home safe too, to comfort mother."_ I try to stop these sad thoughts as I lose concentration and my magic fluctuates. I huff and re open my eyes to see blurs, I lift my hand to move the blur away to realise tear cloud my vision. I hear Porlyusica stomp around and quickly rub my tears away with my arm. "You better not be crying when I step out!" She huffs angrily behind a door. "I'm not!" I reply loudly. She steps out and looks at a clock. "You trained for three hours. Good. Your almost normal so get ready to go." She emphasises the word 'almost' which makes me huff. " _I really do lose track of time when I meditate."_ I think as I feel the emptiness in my magic container. I re wrap my scarf and stand up to follow her out the door. "It's a few days journey." She says opening the door. I follow and nod to her. I shut the door but accidentally slam it and wince at the noise. "Barbaric!" She screeches and checks her door. "Sorry, it's a really light door." I reply shyly. " _At least compared to the heavy bakery one."_ I think about my home for the time being. "Barbaric human." Porlyusica mutters quietly. " _I deserved that."_ I think to myself. "We are leaving." She says strutting west of the forest. I follow closely and quietly, admiring the scenery. " _I'll be home soon then I can ask mother to forgive me."_ I think sadly. " _See you soon."_


End file.
